This request for help from Annette Demers, Reference Librarian at the Paul Martin Law Library, University of Windsor:

I just wanted to solicit assistance from the other blog readers out there. Has anyone successfully configured access to O’Briens Forms using EZ Proxy? Currently we are using this link to OBriens http://www.obriensforms.com/scripts/oblogin.pl but after the patron enters the OBriens website and agrees to the Terms and Conditions, we get a red “Invalid Access Method” message on the next screen that appears. What we think is happening is that ezproxy is absorbing the first cookie that gets set, so that the user

Today’s headlines include stories about the possibility of cameras coming to Ontario courtrooms. This is a result of a press release released yesterday by the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General about the report received from the Ontario Panel on Justice and the Media established by Attorney General Michael Bryant back in January 2005. The Panel was created to help find ways to foster understanding between the media and the justice system. The full report is now available on the Ontario Ministry of Attorney General website. According to the Executive Summary, the Panel made 17 recommendations which cover the following . . . [more]

Freenigma is a Firefox plugin that can encrypt your webmail. You and your correspondent both have to use Freenigma for it to work, though I think each of you can use a different webmail client. Your emails get encrypted in your own browser thanks to some JavaScript in the plugin, and so nothing gets sent to Freenigma.

This might be of use for some smaller firms in which there’s a spate of really sensitive material going to and fro in email. I doubt it’ll keep the American NSA out of things, but short of that it promises to be effective. . . . [more]

E journals, databases, journal aggregators, yada-yada-yada. Amidst all the furor over e content, I want to draw your attention to the Canadian Journal of Law & Society-CJLS, one of my favourite journals, simply because of the innovative cover art that they use on the cover of the journal since volume 15 in 2000. Akin to the debate on cover art on LPs after the downfall of vinyl, are we losing sight of cover art with online journals? …

Here are some recent examples of the artwork on the cover of CJLS. Hold your cursor over the image for more . . . [more]

Thanks to BeSpacific, I’ve learned that the U.S. 7th Circuit federal court of appeal is making oral arguments available by podcast. The link in BeSpacific to the court page is borked“Irretrievably broken”: Urban Dictionary. It should be: http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/ca7_rss.htm. The RSS feed comes in two flavours: standard audio podcast and “iTunes optimized.”

I chose the latter and popped it into iTunes. Nine oral arguments were included in the package for the ninth of August. I listened to the first, USA v. Sergio Arcuri, a criminal case. Poor Mr. Holsinger (sp?), counsel for the appellant. He . . . [more]

I’m in the middle of revamping an instruction session on finding tax treaties worldwide. Since most people aren’t very familiar with treaties/international agreements, I include a review/clarification of some key treaty-related terms. To help me out with this, I’ve been relying on the United Nations Treaty Reference Guide. It defines in great detail key treaty-related terminology (parties vs contracting states, treaty vs agreement vs convention, etc). It also defines terms related to treaty actions (adoption, ratification, entry into force, etc). . . . [more]

A group called Legal Community Against Violence, a San Francisco-based public interest law centre dedicated to preventing gun violence, has just released a comprehensive overview of U.S. federal and state laws on gun control.

The report looks at gun laws in a number of broad areas: classes of weapons, restrictions on sales and transfers, gun dealers, gun ownership, consumer and child safety, and crime detection (ballistic identification, retention of sales records, background checks).

Last December, I wrote a post on my blog Library Boy entitled Gun Control Resources that provided links to Canadian and international resources (Australia, New Zealand, . . . [more]

The Law Commission of Canada released its annual report for 2006 this week.

It is short (30 pages) and provides brief summaries of the research and consultation work done in areas such as globalization and the law, international informal banking, indigenous legal traditions, the definition of “crime”, the future of policing, secured financing on reserves, the protection of vulnerable workers, age and intergenerational relationships, and immigrant settlement. . . . [more]

I’m pleased to announce that Agnese Caruso has joined Slaw as a core contributor.

Agnese is a Research Specialist in the Tax Research Centre at PwC Management Services LP (Price Waterhouse, that is). She has had her own blog, TaxHeat, noted here in Slaw a while back, but has decided that she’d rather bring her talents to us. We’re glad.

Please welcome Agnese Caruso. . . . [more]

I can’t think of a less likely subject for a newspaper editorial than the merits of LC Classification systems. Yet today’s New York Times has just that.

It talks about the New York Public LibraryWhose Catnyp catalogue I use every week. moving away from a home grown classification system, which while delightfully ideosyncraticAll such is relative., confounded users accustomed to conventional catalogues and defied updating.

In the Canadian law library context, all major private law firms with national practices, save one, use modified KFThe best article on KF and the development of Canadian law library cataloguing comes . . . [more]

“Porn for book nerds”. VERY effective! The “nonist” writes, “… (14) gorgeous photos, nearly all without visitors and just begging to be entered.”

I’m speechless with library lust! I know some of you will feel the same way. Has anyone had the opportunity to visit any of these libraries or any other such incredible ones?

See 14 photos from Candida Höfer’s book, Libraries, at Red-Hot and Filthy Library Smut Get a copy for yourself at Amazon.ca.

. . . [more]

An announcement this morning from Lexis about the results of an Ipsos Reid poll on the legal rights of cohabiting couples is as remarkable for its sponsor as its content.

Ipsos Reid conducted the survey for lawyers.com, an online legal resource centre from LexisNexis Canada that helps consumers and small businesses find lawyers and legal information. For the survey, a representative, randomly selected sample of 1,184 adult Canadians completed an online survey.

Given the extent to which there seems to be public misapprehension of rights, it will be interesting to see what products this spurs Lexis to produce.

I . . . [more]