You’ve likely seen a few references now to an upcoming free online course offered by Google: Power Searching with Google. The tagline is “…a short course on becoming a great internet searcher.” For this post, I’ll leave aside speculation about how one becomes a “great internet searcher” using, presumably, one suite of products.

Some discussion I’ve seen refers to this as Google’s MOOC – massive open online course. I’d like to engage in a bit of pedantry for a moment and question whether that’s an appropriate characterization of Google’s offering. A course that requires use of a Google account . . . [more]

I was fortunate to have been invited to teach a session in the Canadian Association of Law Library’s New Law Librarians Institute 2012 earlier this month. The focus of the one-week program is substantive law, but my session was of a more practical nature, entitled “Knowledge Management in the Legal Setting.”

This talk was given last year by Ted Tjaden. Since he was kind enough to share his paper from that talk with all of us (which I found immensely helpful), I thought it good to follow his example and do the same with mine. Click the image or link . . . [more]

Last week I attended a course at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria. I was one of several librarians in a class consisting mostly of digital humanists learning about digital pedagogy. We created hypothetical or real learning assignments relevant to our own fields.

In one of our exercises, the class explored an excellent (beta) site of digital research tools, a site new to me: Project Bamboo’s DiRT, which evolved from an earlier DiRT wiki. The site is a categorized collection of research tools, some of which were familiar but most of which were new . . . [more]

I’m cheered to share a happy note about Library and Archives Canada. Over the past few weeks I’ve enjoyed browsing posts on a pilot service from LAC: thediscoverblog.com, the Library and Archives Canada Blog. Subject areas vary, as they should, though a few recent posts stand out to me in opening up the world of Canadian government and legal information and research.

• Looking for the Debates of the House of Commons (Hansard) online? breaks down and explains what’s accessible online, what is not, and how to access Hansard.
• Finding Aid 300 tells us about a guide to early census

Others have talked about their contributions to lawTechCamp 2012 held in Toronto in May. I am sharing the slide decks from the presentation I did with fellow consultant Stephanie Barnes and the six minute demo I did the same day.

The first talk here is an introduction to Law Firm Knowledge Management. Included are some images developed by Stephanie, and some we have developed together, as well as content from other sources. . . . [more]

A frequent topic of posts here at Slaw and elsewhere in recent times has been the nature of print v. electronic publishing and what the future holds. It is a worthy topic that affects us all and fuels much discussion. In the midst of that I simply want to point out a publication that I find interesting in this information world, I’m not attaching special significance to it beyond the fact that it is interesting to point out. Grantland has been mentioned here at Slaw previously in the context of the Slaw feature You Might Like. Named for Grantland Rice . . . [more]

They are, respectively, dropping and falling, these metaphors being used to describe the AUCC/ Access Copyright (AC) deal struck in in mid April. It being a month since that model deal was announced, it seems that mid May was given as a deadline for the schools that previously opted out to express their intent to sign the model deal. The long and strange journey of the AC copyright tariff for universities has been documented here at Slaw and at other locations fairly extensively; if you are interested in this issue you are no doubt aware of the developments. If . . . [more]

Because two new Supreme Court judges were recently appointed, the Court has released an updated brochure [PDF] containing information about, and photographs of, the building and the judges. Little if any of what’s in here will be news to most lawyers, but you might find it useful to pass on to anyone you’d like to educate about the top court, its jurisdiction and its history.

Some of the historical photographs are interesting, but all of the images could be improved: the PDF renditions are not sharp, and they lack captions. I particularly like the skeletal view of the building as . . . [more]

New, in reference to time, could be one day, one week, or a couple of years. In law librarian terms, I still feel new to my job because it is contantly changing. If like me, you are a librarian who didn’t go to law school, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries can help you cope with the burden of ‘new’.

We have written before about CALL/ACBD’s New Law Librarians’ Institute. The institute is an intensive, week-long program aimed at developing librarians’ skills in the key competencies of law librarianship. The program is an excellent mix of substantive legal topices . . . [more]

Since Sunday I’ve been at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries annual meeting, which wrapped up moments ago. I’m a new member of the organization and this was my first CALL conference. I’m pleased to have put so many faces to names, avatars, and handles. I also enjoyed reconnecting with many people I’ve worked with over the years in several domains all over the country.

The conference presented much enriching content, and also highlighted that many involved in different legal libraries, in different sectors, share many concerns and challenges. This knowledge came to light during networking times and in sessions. . . . [more]

This Saturday, the University of Toronto Law is hosting the second annual lawTechCamp. The schedule is available here, and it’s no surprise that you’ll see many familiar law bloggers, including a significant presence of Slaw contributors.

You can read reviews of last year’s event on Slaw here and here, and background on what this kind of tech camp is about here.

One significant difference with the event this year is that there are a number of sessions which are CPD accredited. Considering the cost of attending is still free, the event promises to be well-attended and . . . [more]

The Journal of the Digital Humanities just released its inaugural issue. It is an open access journal with a new take on the peer review process. As described in the editorial, the idea of community is the starting place for the journal. 

Reversing the ‘closed’ selection and review process usually used, the journal starts with the materials noted on the Digital Humanities Now blog, which itself is a selection from the materials available through all the websites included in the very comprehensive Digital Humanities Compendium. Interestingly, anyone can add their site to the Compendium, so accordingly there is . . . [more]