From Gov’t of Canada Publications: “… the decision has been made to completely transition all publications published by the Publishing Program and publications provided by departments to the Depository Services Program from traditional print to exclusively electronic publication in two years. “ My first question is, does this include primary materials such as bills, gazettes and acts?

While we may have been expecting this transition to occur in the future, the question was always when does that future become the present? For now, that time looks like it is 2014, the question being is this the right time to make . . . [more]

CALL/ACBD’s 50th annual conference is only weeks away. The CPC, our volunteers and the CALL Executive are looking forward to welcoming you to Toronto’s Royal York Hotel, and to the many events we have planned. I’ve already raved about the program and the social events. This conference also offers a few innovations which I hope you will enjoy.

CALL/ACBD launched a new website earlier this year, and the 2012 CPC was the first group to use the new conference templates. Feedback on its usability and structure would be very welcome, and will go into our report to the Executive and . . . [more]

Seems the US DoJ thinks so. If you’ve ever wondered how publishers can charge more for an ebook that for a print version, this is part of the answer. Here is a good roundup of recent coverage. With three of five defendants already having settled, the interest seems to have turned from the question of whether there is price fixing, to the rationale: what strategies are open to publishers in the face of Amazon’s stranglehold on distribution? The obvious answer, as an alternative to breaking the law, is to abandon print-based business models, and pull a Louis CK. . . . [more]

This weekend near midnight on Saturday, will mark 100 years since the unsinkable ocean liner hit an iceburg on its maiden voyage and sank; which around these parts is a big deal. The magnitude of the event was so great that it resonates 100 years later. This event has entered our popular conciousness as it is common to hear of something that did not go well, that it was a disaster of “titanic proportions”; in a way the sinking of the Titanic has become the standard by which disasters are measured. Have you ever felt that you were “arranging . . . [more]

[UPDATE (April 20, 2012): I’m happy to report that I was incorrect in assuming that the Legal Journals Index (LJI) would be discontinued along with the Current Legal Information service. The LJI will continue as part of Westlaw UK. Please see the comments from Westlaw UK below.]

Like most law librarians I’ve been a strong advocate of the use of journal indexes in research. While full-text searching on Hein, Lexis and Westlaw is the fastest and preferred way of finding journal literature, especially if you know exactly what you are looking for, I think there is still a place for . . . [more]

My family and I are very busy riding roller coasters this week. We got on a plane very early last Friday. Due to some unfortunate loss of power to the jetway, our flight was delayed leaving Edmonton for over an hour. Of course this meant a missed connection to our second leg of the journey.

Delay is a concept that comes up in litigation. Parties argue that a delay prejudices their client or that a delay is necessary to promote fair adjudication of a matter.

I was reminded that delay can sometimes mean an unexpectedly good time in a city . . . [more]

Would the public tolerate giving judges discretion in the sentencing of murderers?

Are online child pornography offenders likely to commit offences involving sexual contact with children?

Are job training programs for people leaving prison useful?

These — and another four — interesting questions get addressed summarily in the current issue [PDF] of Criminological Highlights, a publication of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies. Although criminal law is a specialty practised by relatively few lawyers, given the present federal government’s interest in crime, it might not be a bad idea if more of us educated ourselves . . . [more]

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The Canadian Legal Information Institute — CanLII — has just introduced a refinement to its search and citation tools where legislation is concerned. Now, in the case of legislation for which CanLII provides a table of contents, when you consider a specific section or subsection, you’ll see a link to a popup that will offer you a link to cases citing that specific provision and a further link to a perfectly formed citation for that specific provision. As you’ll see in the graphic below (click on it to enlarge it), the number of citing cases is given in the popup, . . . [more]

Greg Lambert crafted a well written and thought provoking piece at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog yesterday titled “The 3 Foot Radius of the Law Library“. Greg inspired my reflection on the law library as a place vs. the law library as a service.

After thinking about it, I believe that in my organization, the library has always been about service from the librarian perspective, but may have been about place from the lawyer perspective. My team and I regularly deliver “service bubbles” in many ways:

• print based current awareness – compiled by others
• email based current