They’re trying something new in New Zealand: writing the law by wiki. Here’s the The Police Act Review wiki itself. via BoingBoing . . . [more]

Ross Perot is putting his copy of the Magna Carta up for sale. Although it’s not one of the originals from 1215, this 1297 copy is still expected to bring $30 million when auctioned off in December.

Only two of the 17 copies are held outside England — one by Perot and the other, also a 1297 copy, by the people of Australia. This is a great opportunity for Canada to acknowledge this seminal event in its legal heritage by buying the Perot copy. It would take flair and a decent slice of some otherwise grey budget: is the government . . . [more]

I reproduce the text of a major announcement this morning

To: All Canada Law Book Customers
From: Stuart Morrison
Date: September 26, 2007
Re: LexisNexis QuickLaw / Canada Law Book

Canada Law Book’s databases, including the Dominion Law Reports, Canadian Criminal Cases and Labour Arbitration Cases will no longer be available on LexisNexis QuickLaw after the current publishing licence agreement expires on March 31, 2008. To continue to have access to these and the other Canada Law Book databases from April 1, 2008 please register online at www.canadalawbook.ca/databaseregistry.html

Canada Law Book has a long publishing history within the Canadian legal

The newswires have just reported that the Library of Congress has awarded ATS Corporation a $14 Million contract to enhance the Global Legal Information Network.

Hebrew and Chinese content is coming: . . . [more]

The folks at William S. Hein have launched a new blog talking about their popular web-based service HeinOnline. The blog is called, appropriately enough, HeinOnline Weblog, and can be found at http://heinonline.blogspot.com/.

Hein have been very good at sending out updates to customers via email; however, for new subscribers or non-subscribers, there is no access to previous messages. Now they seem to be posting these notes to this blog for everyone, which will be helpful. Also, subscribers won’t have to save up past messages. . . . [more]

O/A at UofA has announced that the Canadian Journal of Sociology has become Open Access. The editor describes the factors that drove the decision here. Interestingly, on the financial question (which now seems to be the focus of most discussions), he has this to say: . . . [more]

A great deal has been written both here and elsewhere about the future of publishing in general, and book publishing in particular. And while there are probably as many different prognostications as there are prognosticators, my impression is that a solid majority of those who have commented on these things are in agreement that the publishing industry, as we know it, will soon become a thing of the past. According to a recent piece by novelist Jon Evans in The Walrus, ((Jon Evans, “Apocalypse Soon: The Future of Reading,” The Walrus 4:7 (September, 2007) 38.)) which Neil Campbell cited . . . [more]

Noticed for the first time… only six months or so late:

The New York Times introduced an online feature some six months or more ago whereby if you double-click on any word a window pops up to offer you various reference works’ take on the word. Thus, from an article in today’s Times, a double-click on “nursing” (you must be in the article and not just on the front page of the site) gives a dictionary definition and one from a medical dictionary as well. “Florida” gives a dictionary entry, and entries from the NYT Guide . . . [more]

The BC Courthouse Library and public libraries in BC have teamed up to offer the public access to legal information. According to the notice, LawMatters is

the new public library legal resources project that will provide all British Columbian residents with local access to basic legal information.

The initiative is supported by the Law Foundation of British Columbia. It involves the branch courthouse libraries supporting local public library systems to deliver the info, as well as helping PLE publishers get distribution to libraries. This is a great development, and in line with the other ways BC is supporting public . . . [more]

Since the Toronto International Film Festival just happened here, I thought this piece of news would be interesting to everyone: Canada’s National Film Board’s library of more than 13,000 films is in danger because it does not have the technology required to digitize the collection. So sad. . . . [more]

A number of library listservs are announcing a revamp of the Law Library of Congress website. The site of course retains GLIN: Global Legal Information Network, along with other useful links for legal research. One interesting current awareness publication I was not aware of is their Global Legal Monitor. The current edition (August 2007) is 51 pages in PDF and contains short summaries of new legal developments in countries around the world. The information in the monitor is well-indexed (yes, there were several entries for Canada involving recent case law on border searches, etc.). . . . [more]

Although law-related (print) monographs in Canada are far from dead, perhaps we are at a tipping point now on the availability of law-related e-books. I recently made (an extremely) rough count of the number of e-books available through each of Quicklaw, WestlaweCARSWELL and Canada Law Book ((For this study, I am not considering the numerous “black binders” from CCH as “monographs”, although those binders are available online through CCH Online)).

I counted a total of 85 e-books, many of them being major Canadian legal treatises. Examples of an e-book from each of these vendors (where there are also print equivalents) . . . [more]