What do law librarians get up to. Some wonderful images from AALL’s Day in the Life Competition in which the third prize combines my dear friend Ricki Andersen‘s passions for cats and statutes: . . . [more]

Section 1 starts: . . . [more]

I’ve got the brain on, well, the brain today. It’s partly, I suppose, because of the news of Senator Kennedy’s illness. Partly, too, because of a set of book reviews I’m reading in Harper’s, “A Mind of Its Own, Resisting the tyranny of the brain” by Gary Greenberg. And of course I, like you, spend a good deal of time each day with my electronic brain, a.k.a. my computer. So the brain it is, today.

First, wonder. We hear all too often how AI is going to duplicate our thinking abilities, how as the internet grows ever larger . . . [more]

Today is Convocation here at Dalhousie Law so I first want to use this platform to congratulate all of the Dal Law graduates on a job well done, and wish them the best as they embark on their legal careers; and come to think of it, meet a lot of you who read this blog, so be nice!

Also, as has been mentioned previously, here at Slaw, today is the eve of the 2008 CALL/ACBD conference in Saskatoon. In addition to the Programhave a glimpse at the Committee and Special Interest Group pages in order to see some . . . [more]

Yesterday, I attended a really stimulating discussion at the Writers’ Union Annual Meeting involving Jill Tonus of Bereskin & Parr and the Director of the Scream Literary Festival and York University’s experimental new media lab, Bill Kennedy. The session was moderated by Derek Weiler, the Editor of Quill & Quire.

The issue that Canadian authors confront is how to adapt their work and their expectations to shifting business models for Canadian book and periodical publishing which are continually under threat by shifting market forces, and the new technologies. . . . [more]

The article in the June AALL Spectrum by Barbara Holt, “Almost Teaching Legal Research in a Multi-Office Law Firm: Seven steps to supplementing new attorneys’ legal research skills” [PDF] will resonate with a lot of folks at this time of year, I imagine, as articling students show up in new suits and anxiety. Her seven steps are:

1. Teach associates before they become associates.
2. When new attorneys arrive, show them the library.
3. Take attorneys on a virtual tour of library resources and services.
4. Take advantage of vendor-provided instruction opportunities.
5. Supplement newly-gained experience at the Fall associates retreat.
6. Provide fast

In a bit of a twist on recent practice, it seems that the state of Oregon is aggressively asserting copyright over statutes and legislation. In late April the legal resource website Justia, was served with a cease and desist order ((As Blog-ed at Justia.com)) by the Legislative Counsel of the State of Oregon pursuant to Justia posting Oregon laws. Interestingly, the state is not claiming copyright on the text itself but on such things as the “arrangement and subject matter compliation… the leadlines and numbering for each statutory section, the tables, index and annotations…” ((From the order posted . . . [more]

Some interesting developments on legal scholarship at Harvard: . . . [more]

Roy Mersky may not have been the first person to ride a horse through a major law library but he was likely the smartest, shortest and most published ((His bibliography is awesome in its length)). . . . [more]

And and and and… and. One thing after another, joined with everyone’s favourite conjunction, the subject of today’s fillip. But because it’s Friday and we’re in a hurry to get to the weekend, we’ll shorten it for you: AND, therefore, becomes

AMPERSAND:
Corruption of ‘and per se–and’, the old way of spelling and naming the character &; i.e. ‘& by itself = and;’ found in various forms in almost all the dialect Glossaries. (Earliest quoted use in the OED is 1837.)

Which is all well and good but what about & itself? As you may know, it’s . . . [more]

A couple of unrelated things in this post. Firstly, this link to a NY Times article about an author who utilizes a computer to actually compose his books; explains a lot of material out there web or non-web.

I’m also trying to get something straight. It seems that a number of graduates who are preparing for licensing examination are getting a raw deal from the L.S.U.C. Somebody please help if I don’t have a proper handle on this. But it seems that to obtain the materials to prepare for the exam, a student can either pick them up in person . . . [more]

Today at 3 pm CST/4 pm EST there is a trial run of a new law library phone-in show hosted by Brian Striman and Richard Leiter. Guest will be legal publishing industry expert Ken Svengalis. Call in or chat–details below from one of the AALL email lists. It’s a hot topic so I expect it to be a lively discussion! . . . [more]