Nick Holmes over at Binary Law has posted an interesting review of the new GOV.UK universal website. The UK government’s attempt to make web surfing for government information “simpler, clearer, faster.”

The website is only partially finished at the moment, with all departments expected to be integrated by April, 2013. Like any large portal, the arrangement of information — along with a dysfunctional site-search functionality, which Holmes touches on a few times — are going to be major hurdles to overcome.

The interesting issue for me, however, is whether they are trying to accomplish too much on a singular . . . [more]

The Association of Parliamentary Libraries in Canada (APLIC) has launched the bilingual Government and Legislative Libraries Online Publications Portal.

It provides access to over 340,000 electronic provincial, territorial and federal government publications and legislative materials dating back in some cases to the mid-1990s.

Users can search by keyword, title, author, and then link to the electronic copies of the materials hosted by the collecting library. Results can be cross‐jurisdictional or limited by jurisdiction or date.

APLIC provides a table describing the types of material as well as the coverage period for each jurisdiction. . . . [more]

At New York Legal Tech this week, Thomson Reuters will unveil an interesting basket of software products for the legal market. While a lot of hard innovative work has gone into the products to be released at the start of February, the most notable feature is the elements that they share in common.

The most significant development was not the suite of products that were unveiled but the change in strategic direction that they embody. I’ve commented before on how Thomson Reuters acquisitions appear somewhat disjointed. But this was evidence that the central vision of products like Serengeti has . . . [more]

Statistics Canada launched a blog today called—what else?—StatCan Blog (Blogue de StatCan, en français). As the first post explains,

Like most endeavours at the agency, the blog’s topics will have a certain statistical gravitas: the Framework for Environment Statistics, the System of National Accounts, the Consumer Price Index Enhancement Initiative, the Survey of Financial Security, as well as some broader topics, such as the use of microdata or the new model for publishing data online.

The Chief Statistician believes in the importance of linking these sometimes arcane-sounding initiatives to people’s own backyards.

This is tangential to law, . . . [more]

The UK House of Commons Chamber started tweeting on January 4th on the feed @HouseofCommons. The feed is maintained by House staff and provides official news and information including links to relevant items on the www.parliament.uk website and Twitter feeds from members and others. They have also been re-tweeting the UK Parliament (@UKParliament) and responding to suggestions.

 Hat tip: CBC parliamentary/political reporter Kady O’Malley  (@kady) who issues a challenge to the Canadian Parliament:

. . . [more]

Are you frustrated with the media and pundits providing an incomplete picture of a legal issue? A new law blog seeks to provide a more in-depth perspective on Canadian Legal Ease. The about page states,

This site intends to help fill that gap by providing a forum to provide the public with timely, informed commentary on legal issues currently facing Canada and Canadians.

The opening post this week is from Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Kent McNeil, who says Idle No More Deserves Our Thanks,

A major concern of the Idle No More movement is Bill C-45,

I read today’s post by Sarah Sutherland in the On Firmer Ground blog, “The developing skill-employment disconnect in law libraries and what to do with it” with interest. Sarah Sutherland is Manager, Library Services of McMillan LLP in Vancouver and currently Vice President of the Vancouver Association of Law Libraries. In this post she argues that law libraries have been sheltered from technology changes as compared with others in the library industry, and have therefore as a group not developed the skill sets now needed, or which will be needed in the near future.

In my work . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada has issued a release with the list of appeals that it will hear in January 2013.

For each case listed, there is a summary of the issues involved.

And if you go to the scheduled hearings page and click on the name of any of the cases, you will be able to find the factums filed by the parties. . . . [more]

As announced moments ago, CanLII is launching a collaboration with BG Communications, a Montreal -based translation agency, in order to ensure that certain important case reports delivered in one of the official languages only are made available in the other language. As CanLII President, Colin Lachance notes:

With over 2000 new decisions posted each week, it is not possible to translate everything. . . . However, the legal community has highlighted a number of decisions that warrant wider availability in the other official language.

The press release goes on to say:

Judgments selected for translation will be identified in

The great Courthouse Libraries BC website has introduced a new portal to its roster of practice portals. The Criminal Law Practice Portal (CLPP), like the other five, is meant to:

serve as a law practitioner’s starting point, or homepage, for a particular practice area. The Practice Portals gather key external resources of all kinds (established legal texts, current web resources, and carefully selected news and social media updates), and augments them with library produced content.

Specifically, the CLPP offers practitioners the daily hearing lists (by location), the ability to learn about sentencing ranges for an offence (via rangefindr, introduced and . . . [more]

Twitter is a-buzz today with the announcement that Thomson Reuters is acquiring innovation darling of UK law, Practical Law Company.

According to the Thomson Reuters press release (Jan. 3, 2013):

Practical Law Company has more than 750 employees, with principal operations in London and New York, and will be part of the Legal business of Thomson Reuters. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

PLC has been making an impact over the last couple of years in North . . . [more]

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is accepting nominations for the 2013 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

It honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series, website or e-product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

Members as well as non-members of CALL can make nominations. Criteria are explained on the Award website (see link in first sentence).

The deadline for sending in nominations is February 15, 2013.

Members of the Award Selection Committee are:

• Justice Eric (Rick) Libman, Ontario