Currently Universities and Colleges across Canada are spending hundreds of man-and-woman hours pulling together a list of copy machines, computers, scanners, etc., at the whim of Access Canada Copyright (got the name wrong throughout this post, initially), the agency created, and then named in high irony, to restrict the educational use of materials, to pursue an obsolete model of protecting the interests of creators, and to funnel the resulting funds into pockets unknown. At least, that’s what you might think their mandate was if you judged by their actions. For their self-image, see their About Us page.

Backed . . . [more]

Howdy from Calgary! I am at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries.

There is a lot of interest in the discussions taking place at this year’s conference. I am hearing from law librarians, legal publishers, knowledge management directors, and many others as to how they can follow along if not in attendance. There is a lot of buzz about greening the library, time management, workflow, digitization, budgeting, cost recovery, legal project management, and ebooks. All the hot buzzwords! I have had more than a few people ask me to let them know the outcome of discussions. . . . [more]

In light of the upcoming law library conference season (notably including the Canadian Association of Law Libraries conference–CALL 2011–next week), I am taking the liberty of sharing a few reasons why I see conferences as essential to law library staff.

If you have a law library, sending at least one library staff member to a professional conference each year is worth more than the equivalent dollar cost of books.

Let me repeat that in another way: you will get more value from conferences than books.

Radical, I know, and my legal publishing friends are perhaps going to . . . [more]

The time is ripe for the creation of an online repository and clearinghouse for Canadian legal scholarship in digital form. There are perhaps 70 Canadian journals publishing articles on or immediately relevant to law, making for a manageable supply of material. And the software and associated technology is readily available for free or at a very low cost. Of course, the labour necessary to construct and manage such a resource is not free, and may be less than readily available; but it seems to me that the major obstacle at the moment is simply the lack of will. Someone — . . . [more]

A message on the American Law Libraries – Private Law Libraries SIS Listserv has alerted me to: (i) A new blog by Law Librarian Jean O’Grady called Dewey B Strategic which has the subtitle of “Risk, value, strategy, libraries, knowledge and the legal profession,” and (ii) a recent intriguing post on this new blog called The Myth and the Madness of Cost Effective Lexis and Westlaw Research Training that raises the challenge (if not impossibility) of trying to teach “cost-effective searching” on Westlaw or Lexis to students or associates given the complexity of how these products are priced. Some examples . . . [more]

Are law school rankings legitimate? Play Indiana U's Law School Ranking Game

I have spent the last few weeks preoccupied with making sure E exams here at Schulich Law proceed in an orderly fashion, and being grateful that I was spending my time on this side of the classroom, so to speak, as in not writing 100% finals. Law School pedagogy has been point of some conjecture here at Slaw in the past, but what I thought I would do this time is go old skool on this post and provide a bibliography of some of the literature that has been produced on the gauntlet that is the law school exam….what can . . . [more]

This is the season that brings joy to the heart of many a law firm training librarian. Summer students are starting next week – or in some rare cases, yesterday. At Field Law this year we are welcoming one summer student in our Calgary office (Hi Daniel!) and one in our Edmonton office (Hi Kelsey!). April is always an opportune time to revisit the legal research learning objectives so summer associates.

I am certain that most law firm libraries have input, if not full purview, over summer student research training. In the past, my team has used a two prong . . . [more]

The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History has been publishing a new blog, Canadian Legal History, for just over a month now. (Shame on us for not finding out faster. Shame on them for not telling us.) With the exception of the first welcoming post by University of Toronto law professor, Jim Phillips, all the posts thus far are by Mary Stokes, the R. Roy McMurtry Fellow in Canadian Legal History at Osgoode Hall Law School. Posts are running at about one or two a week.

Currently on Blogspot, the blog will be moving to the Osgoode Society’s new . . . [more]

The most recent issue of the Canadian Law Library Review has a nice article by American attorney Sonia J Buck titled “Movie Therapy for Law Students (and Their Instructors).”

Consistent with my views, the author advocates the use of law-related movies in teaching the law to students. She draws on several movies for specific purposes (e.g., Adam’s Rib and Suspect for ethics, evidence and criminal law), North Country for employment law, and Flash of Genius for IP Law).

In hindsight, I was embarrassed to not have included the obvious choice of Flash of Genius for my law-related movies website, . . . [more]

The number of Canadian law firms delivering CPD courses expanded today with the launch of Gowlings U.

Full disclosure that Gowlings is a client of ours at Stem, but the general trend of law firms teaching their expertise to other lawyers, corporate counsel, notaries and other professionals seems worth noting. That a number of these courses also comply with law society requirements for CPD credit is also significant.

It’s a role that I’ve long thought that law firms could fill. Especially when firms are widely recognized to have strength in certain practice areas, or regional knowledge that other firms . . . [more]

A good part of Slaw is playing hookey today, visiting the ABA TECHSHOW at the Chicago Hilton. It’s the 25th Anniversary show, so we are having fun looking forward and back – and seeing how far we’ve come since the days of DOS and 20 MB hard drives.

Last night, we were entertained by an IgniteLaw session in which twelve speakers gave provocative and creative talks about legal technology and the future of law practice. . . . [more]