Finally, after a decade of exclusively print publication, a portion of the Supreme Court Law Review is available free and online. Each year for the past fifteen years, Osgoode Hall Law School has held a Constitutional Cases conference, the output of which is published in the SCLR. Now, thanks to the efforts of Jamie Cameron and others at York University, the broader community will have access to the more than 200 articles by constitutional scholars and litigation experts. As well, LexisNexis, publishers of the print SCLR, are to be congratulated for giving their permission and support to the project. . . . [more]

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD) annual conference kicked off last night in Toronto at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel and the Ontario Legislature. Yesterday we had many of the Association business meetings, the first part of the AGM and opening of the exhibit hall at the Royal York. Members and guests then headed to the Legislature for the opening reception.

We were treated to a welcome from the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Hon. Dave Levac (see photo), and a tour that included the Speaker’s apartment in the Legislative Building, the Legislative Chamber, and the Legislative Library.

CALL/ACBD . . . [more]

The Journal of the Digital Humanities just released its inaugural issue. It is an open access journal with a new take on the peer review process. As described in the editorial, the idea of community is the starting place for the journal. 

Reversing the ‘closed’ selection and review process usually used, the journal starts with the materials noted on the Digital Humanities Now blog, which itself is a selection from the materials available through all the websites included in the very comprehensive Digital Humanities Compendium. Interestingly, anyone can add their site to the Compendium, so accordingly there is . . . [more]

The Chesapeake Digital Preservation Group has just published its 5th annual study of link rot among the original URLs for online law- and policy-related materials it has been archiving since 2007.

“Every year, the Chesapeake Group investigates whether or not the documents in the archive can still be found at the original web addresses from which they were captured. The group analyzes two samples of web addresses, or URLs, pulled from the archive’s records”

“The first sample includes 579 original URLs for content captured from 2007-2008. This sample is revisited every year to document link rot and explore how it

The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) and Lancaster House announced this afternoon that they are cooperating in a project to provide open access legal commentary. The digitized text of Wrongful Dismissal and Employment Law (1st Ed.) by Peter Neumann and Jeffrey Sack “will be fully integrated and freely available to the public on the CanLII website” as of tomorrow, May 4, according to the joint press release. The press release also states that CanLII President, Colin Lachance, sees this a first step in improving access to law through the free provision of explanatory materials.

The Wrongful Dismissal e-text will be . . . [more]

The Quebec Riot

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of CALL, it is perhaps worth reminiscing about one of its most infamous and contentious dialogues with a legal publisher. Some of you may know it as the Quebec Riot, an expression no doubt coined by the ever perceptive and distinguished, but sometimes mischievous, Denis Le May.

It came about as any riot usually does, when law librarians felt no one was listening to them.

They were right.

The seventies and eighties saw a veritable explosion in the number of reported cases. New jurisdictional and topical law reports, combined . . . [more]

I’d hoped for a happier first post for my return to Slaw, but I do think it’s important to shine the light on the forthcoming reductions to Library and Archives Canada and any broader impact or mirroring of reality. The cuts to the LAC announced in last month’s budget received some media coverage and commentary from interested parties at that time. This coincides with LAC’s announcement of a phased-in shift in the manner in which reference services are handled, to provide service with reduced staff.

This week we learned more precisely the nature of the impact on LAC. According to . . . [more]

CanLii just released a new feature today, which allows one-click citation of statutes and regulations. You can read more about this feature here.

With the addition of new search features the free legal database is continually closing the gap with the commercial publishers, who will have to develop completely innovative services to take legal research to the next level. . . . [more]

Legal eBook lending is closer than you think. There was an announcement last week from the US arm of LexisNexis about their new partnership with Overdrive. Information Today has a good overview of what this means for the industry.

The LexisNexis Digital Library offers access to LexisNexis’ growing collection of more than 1,100 ebooks through OverDrive. That means, like my public library, a subscribing law library is able to acquire Lexis ebook titles, and “lend” each of them to a patron at a time. The library sets its own checkout and renewal terms. When a patron “returns” the title, then

In a landmark decision just 24 days after April 1, the Canadian Trade-marks Office has clarified the definition of “fish”. Constitutional lawyers continue to wrangle over whether this stunning policy reversal will be given retroactive effect.

Subject: Mise à jour Manuel de marchandises et services – Wares and Services Manual Update

Dans le but d’éviter toute ambiguité que ‘poisson’ est un terme spécifique et en termes ordinaires du commerce, l’entrée ‘Poissons pour l’alimentation’ dans le Manuel de marchandises et services sera remplacée par ‘Poisson’ seul, avec la note suivante: Cette entrée fait référence à la définition la plus courante de

The Sunlight Foundation launched a beta version of Scout today, a free service which compiles information from a variety of sources to let you search through bills and speeches before Congress, State bills, and Federal regulations. The site allows the creation of custom alerts when a specific issue is going before Congress, as well as tracking these issues over time.

The Sunlight Foundation is a a non-profit who “uses the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency, and provides new tools and resources for media and citizens, alike.” Sounds like powerful stuff. You can see more . . . [more]

Today is World Book and Copyright Day, initiated by UNESCO and promoted by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).

Here is a message from Ingrid Parent, President of IFLA and University Librarian at the University of British Columbia: