Alejandro (Alex) Manevich, the multi-talented research lawyer at Ogilvy Renault in Toronto, writes to say that he likes our CanLII Find bookmarklet so much that he changed it. He finds he uses citations as his query terms, and so he’s hacked the little thing to make it search CanLII for the citations of his choice.

His happy modification is here: CanLII Find – Citation (IE).

Note that this only works with IE. (I’ll see if I can whip up a Firefox version.) Drag it to your favourites bar or treat it as a bookmark. If you highlight a citation . . . [more]

Simon Chester reaches out from Edinburgh (forcing me to remember how to spell it) to point me to an article in last weekend’s New York Times Magazine, “Scan This Book!” by Kevin Kelly, honcho at Wired Magazine (and maker of one of my favourite sites, Cool Tools). Kelley reports on the various initiatives that are underway around the world to digitize all of the world’s books — literally. We’ve touched on them from time to time here at Slaw… Brewster Kahle’s Internet Archive, Google’s troubled efforts, Amazon’s plan… but Kelley also talks about the Chinese enterprises and . . . [more]

Connie’s dream of having all the new publisher offerings on a single website may soon be attainable!

Our friend Library Boy is noting the recent addition of RSS Feeds for LexisNexis Canada.

Here’s the full list.

I believe some of these feeds were available previously (What’s New, News Releases, & The Lawyers Weekly) , but some look to be new, and the ‘one-stop-shop’ approach is definitely a nice addition. So… kudos to Lexis for jumping on the RSS Bandwagon!

Who’s next? . . . [more]

I am currently in the process of up-dating my guide to Australian legal research on LLRX.com. One of the things I always have to change is the current state of the names of the major legal publishers and their respective ‘big’ databases. As the take-overs and buy-outs and mergers continue so do the name changes, although, frustratingly, there’s rarely a quick changeover and sometimes a merger of the names, confusing many people and meaning that my Guide is rarely current on this aspect. In Australia Butterworths and Law Book Company were, for many decades, the main law publishers, trailed at . . . [more]

My first CALL Conference ended last Wednesday, and I’d like to say thanks to the many members of CALL that made the experience first class!

I met an amazing number of people, and for the first time was able to put faces to names. From listserv personalities to fellow Slaw members, the Canadian law library community suddenly become tangible to me. A large percentage of people I spoke with had exposure to me via Slaw or my personal blog, and in traditional Librarian fashion, didn’t hesitate to introduce themselves! As someone who can become locked in their ‘reserved’ moments, . . . [more]

Michael Geist interviewed by Rob Hyndman

Notes by Connie Crosby – any inaccuracies or ommissions are mine and not the speakers’

Bill 60 Copyright died on the Order Paper; new legislation is expected to be introduced this fall; Geist expects it to be more U.S.-style legislation.

The current protection tools currently don’t work. This legislation has an impact with free speech and scientific research.

iTunes phenomenon – they were able to negotiate content protection deals with the distributors – only did this once Napster made them realize how people wanted music delivered, and they were going to download whether they . . . [more]

Today and tomorrow I am attending the Mesh conference in Toronto talking about Web 2.0 issues. Jim Milles is here, too, blogging beside me so you might check out his blogs for additional perspective on the issues raised.

Day 1 is largely focussed on social, political and broadcasting/media issues. Day 2 (tomorrow) will have a more business / marketing / entrepreneurial focus.

One of the organizers is Rob Hyndman, so there are definitely legal issues are being addressed in the sessions.

The conference is being held in the funky MaRS Collaboration Centre on College St. (just west of University . . . [more]

Since I’m in the East Neuk of Fife without access to the web, this posting will be brief – and without the usual bevy of hyperlinks that normally are scattered like vole droppings over my blog postings.

And the lack of web access also gives me some distance to think about Canadian law, as contrasted with English law as reflected in the four major Sunday papers.

It’s been interesting over the last thirty years to note how English law – once so central to Canadian law – has moved to the margins. And not to be replaced by American law . . . [more]

Well, Simon Fodden’s intuition was correct. There does appear to be a need for a model legal taxonomy which can be used across Canada. At the CALL/ACBD conference in the Members’ Open Forum, there was a call for someone to put together one taxonomy for common and civil law rather than everyone reinvent the wheel. I don’t see that any official vehicle was put into place to achieve this other than it being a possible future research project. There does seem to be a lining up of the stars on this one if there is someone who wants to take . . . [more]

1. CALL/ACBD 2006 Conference: “Legislation Repeal: Cleaning Out the Attic”
2. Bill S 202 – Statutes Repeal Bill [pdf]
3. 55 statutes not in force [pdf]
4. Google press release: four new tools
5. Google Co-op
6. Google Desktop 4
7. Google Notebook
8. Google Trends
9. The Globe and Mail: Google Canada announces Google SMS
10. The Globe and Mail: Bennett Jones corrals a herd from Torys
11. Pericles
12. Australian Law Reform Commission: Legal education & training: An evolutionary approach
13. N. Rees, “How Should Law Schools Server Their Communities? [pdf]
14. University of Technology, Sydney Law Review: Skills
    Skills—Kind Inclusion And Learning In Law School
15. M. Leskiewicz, “Notes Towards a Healthy

“Rabbit Stole the Pumpkin“, “ Les Flammes d’Enfer“, “Sulphur Breakdown” … just three of dozens of songs on Cajun Music, tunes from the 20’s, 30’s and more recent times, all free to download in mp3 format.

Get back in touch with those Canadiens errants, kick out the jams, and laissez les bons temps rouler. . . . [more]

Following on the recently completed CALL/ACBD conference, I wanted to bring to Slaw-ers attention, some material rising out of Senator Tommy Banks plenary session. For those of you who were not there, the plenary was entitled: Legislation Repeal: Cleaning Out the Attic. A very interesting session regarding Federal Statutes which have received Royal Assent but have not been brought into force. The Senator detailed this occurance and explained his efforts to change the status of these statutes in limbo. Coming out of that session here is the link to the bill sponsored by the Senator: Bill S 202 – . . . [more]