That’s what the Globe described the Steele Collection as this morning.

But for Slaw readers, the description better applies to The Times unveiling of the most significant cases reported in the paper from 1785 to 1869, including links to the actual reports from The Times of that period.

David Pannick introduces the concept. . . . [more]

Great news for those of you who spend hours in Toronto’s libraries:

Toronto Star reports that Toronto Public Library has finally caught up with other library systems and bookstores by allowing food and drinks in most areas of its 99 branches. . . . [more]

Paul E. Kennedy, Chair, Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, has released his final report on RCMP Use of the Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW) (i.e. Tasers). (A PDF version is available.

As an aside, why is it that the online news stories fail to contain a link to the original report? I don’t mind doing the ten seconds of research myself, but it does seem odd that a web-based news outlet would ignore an easily available link to the documents in question. Maybe they need librarians. . . . [more]

Redesigned FindLaw.com site helps people find answers, find lawyers . . . [more]

That’s the position of one Massachusetts official offered in the explanation for why the new courthouse in Worcester Massachusetts didn’t provide space for a law library.

Just goes to show that the case for legal research has to be made continually.

It wasn’t heard in Governor Romney’s office, which is why the law library has been the sole tenant of the otherwise abandoned “old” Worcester courthouse for eight months, and lawyers continue to have to trek in and out.

. . . [more]

We’ve noticed Fastcase a couple of times on Slaw, including a piece in 2006.

A recent piece from Forbes uses Fastcase as the poster boys for open source access to the law. But it also speculates what impact services like PreCydent, Public.Resource.org and Collexis Holdings’ Casemaker division will have on the major players. It makes a convincing case that for small to medium firms, the majors may have priced themselves out of consideration, opening a niche for new entrants ((Lest anyone is tempted to organize a flag day for the majors, Forbes reports that Fastcase’s revenue last year . . . [more]

From time to time lawyers need to touch base with sub-political reality, and scientific journals offer one way to do that. WorldWideScience is a cooperative venture among 44 countries under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (sigh: I wish I didn’t wish it was run out of Denmark or Korea or Chile) that offers a federated search of the various countries’ databases. Canada’s contribution, for example, is the National Research Council’s Institute for Scientific and Technical Information and Defence Research and Development Canada’s Defence Research Reports.

I ran a simple search . . . [more]

I am currently in Seattle at the Special Libraries Association annual conference. SLA is a large international organization made up of specialized information professionals.

SLA awards were handed out last night, and I am delighted to report law librarian Sabrina Pacifici was honoured with the J.J. Kellar Innovations in Technology Award for her long-standing work as creator, founder and sole editor of law and technology blog beSpacific and e-zine LLRX.com. Sabrina Pacifici was one of the first in the legal research industry to harness the Internet and especially blogs as a way to communicate with colleagues and bring together . . . [more]

Let me quote from the Thursday news release on the CanLII site:

Thanks to a grant from the Law Foundation of Ontario, the following additions have been made on CanLII:

• All Supreme Court of Canada cases originating from Ontario back to 1876 in searchable HTML and PDF-image format (2,100 cases)
• All Court of Appeal for Ontario cases that were appealed at the Supreme Court of Canada (1,300 cases)
• All reported Ontario Superior Court of Justice cases back to 1994 (3,500 cases)

This project added 100,000 pages of historical material on CanLII. CanLII wishes to sincerely thank the Law Foundation of

Today’s The Daily from Statistics Canada reveals new 2007 data from the Canadian Internet Use Survey. Interesting findings include:

• Digital divides in Internet use persist, specifically on the basis of income, education and age.
• High-speed connections are becoming far more popular.
• More Canadians are participating in blogging, chatting and downloading.
• Internet use rates are highest in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

This was the first time the survey included Canadians aged 16 and 17. . . . [more]

After having solicited suggestions from all and sundry, the U.K. Law Commission has chosen seven projects to work on. According to an article in today’s Times Online these include marriage contracts and separation agreements (referred to by that irritating, to me, Americanism “nups”) the law on intestacy, consumer rights of redress, laws on residential care, treason and level crossings.

Only in Britain could an institution seriously combine interests in treason and level crossings.

The Law Commission’s own Tenth Programme of Law Reform is available as a PDF.

It interests me that the Commission has explicitly chosen to avoid issues such . . . [more]

Strange days in Canadian legal publishing.

We wonder what to make of reports that there’s been a major executive blood-letting at one of the big three legal publishers.

Perhaps its mere coincidence that a CEO, an Exective VP and the VPs of Customer Service, sales and marketing all appear to have left within a matter of weeks.

Perhaps its all business as usual and this is natural staff progression. Perhaps the profits aren’t flowing in from the Canadian market.
Perhap the company is imploding.

We’re just asking. . . . [more]