Back in March I lamented, along with many others, the announcement that Google Reader is being discontinued. As I wrote, I have been exploring the use of Outlook for RSS. I also said that I dislike it, and my opinion has not changed. My team uses RSS to selectively gather information from specific feeds that we then pass along to others. We have found a replacement for Google Reader and a new method for sharing that Slawyers may be interested in.

Jennifer Merchant, one of the fantastic library team members at the Field Law Libraries, was tasked with . . . [more]

The confusion of the names of cases, what used to be called their “styles of cause”, is distressingly common. There is a recent decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal called by CanLII, Poole v. Lombard General Insurance Company of Canada, 2012 BCCA 434, called by the D.L.R., Danicek v. Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang, 356 D.L.R. (4th) 710. Not one party is common to both reports of the case. CanLII notes the “Related Decisions” as (i) Court of Appeal, Danicek v. Poole, 2012 BCCA 65 (CanLII) – 2012-02-09, and (ii) Supreme Court of British Columbia, . . . [more]

Division 27 of Part 4 of the federal Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act (legislation to implement Budget 2012 measures), which received royal assent on June 29, 2012, will repeal section 13 of the Statutory Instruments Act on April 1, 2014, and remove the requirement to deliver and sell printed copies of the Canada Gazette.

I appreciate the ability to borrow eBooks from my public library with a tap on an app. I am not currently able to make it as easy as that for my law firm library users who wish to review legal texts with mobile devices. Times are changing though and law firms are buying eBooks.

At the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference earlier this month, there were plenty of discussions about eBooks. A roundtable discussion that was blogged about, a session that included Bess Reynolds (author of The Challenges of E-books in Law Firm Libraries), and many . . . [more]

When was the last time you got a great deal for less than 25 cents? If you’re looking for excellent value for money, consider the work of law reform agencies.

Law reform publications are a great resource for legal research. Michel-Adrien Sheppard regularly posts updates on Slaw on the work of Canadian and international law reform agencies. Kim Nayyer has also highlighted the value of law reform publications in legal research.

Canadian law reform agencies produce a range of informative, well-researched publications every year. Although some international law reform agencies overseas now charge a fee for hard copy publications, most . . . [more]

One of the big themes running through many of the workshops at this week’s CALL conference in Montreal was the redesign of products, platforms and processes. The conference ended yesterday.

The Monday session entitled “Please Don’t Make Me Think: User Testing a Faceted Search Engine” was about how the Centre d’accès à l’information juridique (CAIJ), Quebec’s Courthouse Library Network, conducts user testing sessions to validate the ergonomic and design aspects of many of its tools, including its new faceted search engine JuriBistro UNIK.

I served as a guinea pig at the session. I volunteered to go up on stage . . . [more]

Montreal is currently playing host to the Canadian Association of Law Libraries’ 2013 conference, completing our celebrations of the 50th anniversary year of CALL/ACBD. Information and research professionals from across the country are connecting, sharing and learning in an intense 3 1/2 days.

Awards were handed out during today’s luncheon and–among other deserving winners–we applauded the University of British Columbia Press. They have won the prestigious Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing for their Canadian Yearbook of International Law–itself marking a milestone with the 50th annual volume about to be published.

Michel-Adrien Sheppard has . . . [more]

CanLII is testing a new search interface! Check out beta.CanLII.org. The CanLII Blog reports:

CanLII is proud to present a new search interface designed to unify the functionalities of its search engine under a single form that is at once easier and more powerful to use. This beta site allows our users to get comfortable with this new tool, its functionalities and its organization. As this interface evolves over the coming months, we invite you to send us your comments and suggestions.

Like the single search box on the basic Google page? You will probably like the beta . . . [more]

Back in 2009, I did a quick check on link rot in Canadian decisions on CanLII. Today I repeated my quick investigation of link rot in Canadian judicial decisions. To gather decisions with URLs I simply searched for the text “http://” in CanLII. I limited my results for 2012 decisions, and sorted by date.

There were 156 court decisions in 2012 that referenced websites by specific URL. I looked at 10 decisions – all of which were decided between December 19 and 31, 2012. There were 4 broken hyperlinks. One reference was missing the colon in “http://”, and once that . . . [more]

The May 2013 issue of the AALL Spectrum, the monthly publication of the Association of American Law Libraries, is devoted to law library architecture south of the border. Nice pix.

From the presentation:

The 13th annual architecture series features two new buildings and four remodels/renovations from two public law libraries, one law firm, and three academic libraries. Both new buildings aim to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certifications. In Baltimore, the library transitioned from occupying two floors to being spread over six, and in Denver, the new library bridges print and electronic.

In Seattle, the law firm

. . . [more]

Very shortly, at 7 pm ET, a presentation on Orphan Works and Digital Libraries will be live-streamed. The stream will be available at http://tfisher.org/hls1x-copyright.html.

For later viewing, the presentation and discussion will be archived in about a week at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/CopyrightX_Events_2013.htm.

The speakers are top-notch: Brewster Kahle, John Palfrey, and Robert Darnton. It seems likely their discussion will be set in the context of the Digital Public Library of America, which launched last week, and with which all are connected. Copyright themes likely will focus on US law.

More information on the DPLA is . . . [more]

Earlier this month, Kirk Makin of the Globe and Mail scooped an announcement of a major set of Reports on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, an inititaitive that started with the Chief Justice’s challenge to the Canadian Bar Association last summer.

The four Reports from Working Groups chaired by Justice Thomas Cromwell were officially released this morning:
Backgrounder
Report of the Court Processes Simplification Working Group
Report of the Access to Legal Services Working Group
Report of the Prevention, Triage and Referral Working Group
Report of the Family Justice Working Group

And a background literature review: Family . . . [more]