Universities dispose of more than 1.8 million books and journals a year, according to official figures… Statistics obtained by The Times Higher [Education Supplement] show that 36 institutions got rid of more books and printed volumes than they acquired.

Seems it has to do with the need to create space for e-learning environments, or so the claim goes. In aggregate, however, libraries acquired more print materials than they “decomissioned,” some 2.8 million volumes in 2005-2006. . . . [more]

For anyone who hasn’t yet ordered their XO laptop, here’s another option if you need to drop $400 on a cute little computer: the Asus eeePC.

This is a very portable little machine, about the size of a paperback. Its 7″ screen is apparently large enough to use with comfort while ensuring it can truly be carried around easily (it weighs less than 2 pounds).

But where it gets interesting is inside. It has only flash memory, which decreases its size and weight significantly. It has a relatively slow 900 MHz processer and only 512 MB of RAM, . . . [more]

Text to speech continues to improve and is probably at the point now where one could listen to a computer read a text without feeling any serious irritation. In Apple’s new operating system, Leopard, the voice of “Alex” is particularly successful, I think.

Have a listen to Michel-Adrien Sheppard’s most recent post to hear what I mean. Let me know what you think. . . . [more]

On Sunday, November 25, the Canadian Bar Association is organizing a protest march to the Supreme Court of Canada building in Ottawa as a a show of support for the lawyers and judges of Pakistan.

“CBA President Bernard Amyot will lead the procession of CBA Bar Leaders, lawyers, law students and other members of the legal community from across Canada. The County of Carleton Law Association is also giving its full support to the march to the steps of the Supreme Court of Canada. Bar Leaders will address the marchers and participants will have the opportunity to sign a petition

Today the Victoria Times Colonist is reporting, courtesy of the CanWest wire, that some professors are banning laptops in their classrooms. This is nice for Slaw, because Colin Galinski is quoted extensively, and his Slaw column that touches on the topic is mentioned.

The story is running on page A2, which is pretty impressive. Of course, it seems to be a bit of a slow news day: the headline on page 1 reads “Game over: Lawn bowlers told to leave ‘valuable’ spot” . . . [more]

We’ve discussed e-book readers and electronic paper several times on this blog. Amazon.com announced today the release of Kindle, its own e-book reader, or wireless portable reading device, as it calls it. It retails for US $399 and thus far ships only in the US and is not available on amazon.ca or amazon.co.uk. It is a standalone product, in that content does not need to be loaded via a computer or other external device; a purchased book is delivered wirelessly to the reader in about a minute, according to Amazon. It is said to hold 200 titles and weigh about . . . [more]

Lately there’s been a lot of talk on the internet (a circulating “meme,” as some would have it) that email is doomed if not already dead. As Mark Twain said after reading his own obituary, the report of this death has been greatly exaggerated. Ask any lawyer or librarian contemplating the Outlook inbox. A gentle exploration of the issue in Slate (“The death of e-mail” by Chad Lore) points to some important facts that we have raised many times here on Slaw, though never with the narrow conclusion that email is fatally ill.

Essentially, the article looks . . . [more]

David Maister is one of the top business experts, specializing in professional service firms (including law firms). He is known for his bestselling books including Managing the Professional Service Firm, his blog and his podcasts.

So, it was exciting when he showed up last month at PodCamp Boston to talk about his career and answer questions from the group of podcasters and other new media types who crammed into a small room to see him.

Mitch Joel, President of Montreal-based marketing firm Twist Image, took the opportunity to interview David Maister. He shared that interview in . . . [more]

Time is at a premium. The pressures of the billable hour and the stress of meeting client needs and expectations are reaching an all time high. With all the developments in communication technology the boundaries between our home and work environments have eroded. We can now be reached by cell phone and email anywhere in the world and at anytime. Setting and respecting our boundaries is more difficult then ever. No is today’s biggest challenge.

So what’s a legal professional to do?

Look no further for your answer than The Power of a Positive No by William Ury. Ury is . . . [more]

I came across a story, “London’s most wanted” by Ed Gottsman, posted yesterday on ZDNet‘s Between the Lines, one of the blogs I follow. It had to do with a report detailing the ineffectiveness of London’s 10,000 official CCTV cameras in solving crimes. I thought that this might interest some Slaw readers, but that it wasn’t so squarely up our alley (can that be right?) that it merited an entry, so I was simply going to post a link in the Slaw Linkblog to the report that gave rise to this article .

The ZDNet piece . . . [more]

Manitoba lawyer Donna Seale has been blogging since the end of August but somehow we missed that fact. But now we’re on it: her blog is Human Rights in the Workplace. Says Seale, a former Manager of Investigation & Mediation at the Manitoba Human Rights Commission who now has her own consulting business:

My intention in starting this blog is to use my knowledge and experience to help employers, employees, managers, supervisors, human resource specialists and union representatives understand the ins and outs of Canadian human rights law as it relates to the workplace.

Of course, there is an . . . [more]

This is not hard research or hard law, but it touches on each and it is interesting. It is Democracy 250. In short, a site intended to commemorate 250 years of Parliamentary Democracy in Nova Scotia.

One of the more interesting parts of the site is the Historical Timeline and Learning Resources which include digital copies of original acts, treaties etc drawn from archival collections. Such as the 1758 Act, Relating to the Duties of Import on Rum and other Distilled Liquors. In the timeline one can pick a year and see the documents associated with it.

….in . . . [more]