A Slaw exclusive: Jason Wilson in lengthy conversation with the VP of Tech at Thomson.

The new Google Scholar Blog announces that it’s now possible to get email alerts when material that matches your query is added to the index. Full instructions are given on the page linked to above; but here I’ll reprise a paragraph from that page, broken down into steps and using a search for a legally relevant matter as an example (i.e. with the “legal opinions and journals” option selected). Click on the green links to see a cropped screenshot of the results and the blue links to see the actual results in a new window.

1. To create an alert for

. . . [more]

World Cup 2010 - Some Legal Aspects

Aspiring authors with an interest in digital self-publishing would be wise to review this June 3rd article from the Wall Street Journal: ‘Vanity’ Press Goes Digital. One of the big factors driving the viability of self-publication is this month’s changed revenue split with Authors by Amazon – rising from 35% to 70% for e-books priced from $2.99 to $9.99.

The article breaks down a lot of the economics involved, especially for authors with a smaller fan base:

“Some people will be tempted by the 70% royalty at Amazon,” Mr. Nash says. “If they already have a loyal fan base,

. . . [more]

Monday’s release of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in Canberra splendidly elevates Graham Greenleaf to membership in the Order of Australia (General Division). See the Commonwealth Gazette No. S 84, Monday, 14 June 2010

The official announcement cites that it is: “For service to the law through the development of free electronic access to legal information, and as a leader in the protection of privacy.”

Since we neglected to recognize Austlii’s first place showing in the Australia and New Zealand Internet Best Practice Awards, sponsored by auDA and InternetNZ, the Internet domain name administrators for Australia and New . . . [more]

The algorithm for generating CanLII keywords sure spits out some gems. Take this real CanLII keyword string, for example:

• underwear — negligence — wearing blue acid washed jeans — defence — lawyer

How could one not link through to figure out what kind of negligence case could involve a pair of blue acid wash jeans? The fact that the word “underwear” comes before “negligence” makes this list of keywords even better. Could it be that negligence is now part of the “law of underwear”?

Here are some other goodies:

• lifejacket — flip flops — cordless — daughter — bed
• alibi

. . . [more]

Since I’m just back from France I thought it might be fun to point to one of the few government sponsored videos (entitled Crepes) that actually uses humour to get across a point about the necessity for interjurisdictional co-operation in the handling of accident benefits.

It comes from an excellent French blog, Precisement.org.

Les différentes voies de la communication juridique de l’Union européenne
Une histoire de crêpes
Ou la nécessité de coordination des sécurités sociales en Europe exposée en vidéo

It’s all about the need to carry your social security card on holiday. The EU Video . . . [more]

I am a regular user of the services and collection of the Alberta Government Library. The library organization has changed significantly over the years from embedded department libraries to a centralized model under the service branch of the government. The “significant change” trend is continuing in 2010.

There was a library group email list announcement recently that confirmed earlier rumours that three of seven branches (or sites as they are referred to) are closing as of October 1, 2010. Given that this consolidation will have a direct (likely negative) impact on my ability to gather information for my clients, . . . [more]

Rian — the word means “path” in Irish — is the new National Portal for Ireland. The portal aggregates the contents of the digital repositories of seven Irish universities. A search for [law] turns up 312 results, ranging in dates and topics, for example, from a 2007 article “Alternative Sanctions and Social Norms in International Law: The Case of Abu Ghraib” to an article from 1872 “On the practicability of codifying English law, with a specimen code of the law of evidence.”

You can, of course, order search results by date, relevance, item type, and so on. . . . [more]

On May 25th CLA Executive Council put forward two resolutions, to postpone elections (considered an unconstitutional but necessary move) and to operate on a zero-based balanced budget going forward. I have heard that, to balance the budget, it will mean closing down some or all divisions and special interest groups. These resolutions were voted on at the AGM on Saturday, June 5th.

Like most law librarians in this country, I am unfortunately not a member of the Canadian Library Association (CLA). Some of my colleagues, however, have been members of its CASLIS division for specialized libraries (as opposed . . . [more]

The Global Centre for Information and Communication Technologies in Parliament, a partnership initiative of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, has released a considerable World e-Parliament 2010 report. (Aussi disponible en français.) According to the executive summary [PDF]:

The Report presents the latest data on the use and availability of systems, applications, hardware, and other tools in [134] parliaments around the world, based on the global survey conducted by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament in 2009.

. . . The Report highlights two critical issues – communication with citizens

. . . [more]

CNA releases 2009-2010 FOI Audit. Federal government not doing well. Exceptional Valedictory address.