Those interested in European law or in freedom of expression might want to take a look at documents from “The European Protection of Freedom of Expression: Some Recent Restrictive Trends”, a recent seminar at the European Court of Human Rights, which was directed at the question: “Are recent developments in the Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights case-law undermining adequate guarantees for freedom of expression?”

Here’s a partial list of papers available in PDF, to give you a sense of what’s there:

Freedom of Expression and Article 10 ECHR – Summaries of 20 recent

It’s not the first time a city or location is suing for intellectual property in its name. But it’s probably the first time a major blockbuster has been the target of the lawsuit.

The city of Batman, located in eastern Turkey, is named after the river by the same name that flows into the Tigris. Both the river and the oil-producing city derive their name from the adjoining Bati Raman mountains.

Batman is known around the world for a much more popular comic book character, turned into blockbuster film. The $1billion box office sales for the Dark Knight . . . [more]

I spoke with Mandy Ostick, Manager, Virtual Library, Courthouse Libraries BC about their new beta web library catalogue built with Aquabrowser.

Mandy shared that Courthouse Libraries BC chose Aquabrowser because it is a web interface for data from their existing Integrated Library System (Horizon). The implementation process for Aquabrowser took about a year. Aquabrowser is a rapidly growing company which presented some time frame challenges. Mandy finds there is great potential for adding more information pieces like Federated Search and having all those tools play nicely for a one stop shop that would include the wide range of knowledge pieces . . . [more]

TMA=Too many Acronyms.

Google’s (Goog) agreement with the Association of American Publishers (AAP) is summarized by the US’s Association of Research Libraries (ARL) with special emphasis on the implications of the agreement for libraries, and especially large US research library systems. A press release is here.

With it’s special deference to commercial incentives, US copyright law differs from Canadian, so the terms of this agreement may be irksome to Canadian libraries, should the AAP or other US bodies try to apply it here.

via Stephen’s Lighthouse . . . [more]

Take a seat.

Not just any seat, of course. One that suits your needs and, well, that part of you. Ever since human beings discovered that they could bend in the middle, proper seating has been a matter of considerable importance. If you happen to be a court, sittings are even more significant, but that’s a whole nother business, as they say. This is about plain old citizenry sitting and, more precisely, the chairs that enable it.

Those of you who work at firms likely have ergonomically correct (or at least adjustable, so the instructions promise) chairs, like the Aeron . . . [more]

A recent story from Nova Scotia has focused a lot of attention on pre-employment screening and the use of polygraphs. Hopefully, it will encourage a larger discussion on both sides of the issue.

According to media reports, anybody applying for a job that falls within the purview of the Halifax Police Service and Fire Service is required to pay for a polygraph examination that includes a range of questions, some of which have been considered to be objectionable. (See the full questionnaire here (pdf).)

Others have objected to the use of a polygraph, as many assert it is not . . . [more]

I am always very surprised to see and hear that there are still some lawyers, judges, CIOs and other officers who don’t know what Electronic Discovery is. Actually, this is not true. I am not surprised, and why would I be about something that we are only forced to learn when we are exposed to it. Most people learn about e-discovery when they are involved in a lawsuit. Why would I be interested in it if I am not involved in a lawsuit? Well, there are 2 reasons: I want to make money from it, which is a very good . . . [more]

There’s an interesting small piece on the Legal Technology section of Law.com that treats the issue of whether and when social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are discoverable, and if so, when admissable as evidence. “Are Social Networking Sites Discoverable?“, by Ronald J. Levine and Susan L. Swatski-Lebson, deals principally with privacy and a party’s reasonable expectation of it, typically as an employee in a corporate setting.

A search of CanLII [“discovery” + (“facebook” OR “myspace”)] throws up three cases that merely touch on the matter: Knight v. Barrett, 2008 NBQB 8; Weber v. . . . [more]

On Monday, November 17, 2008 Dr. Colin J. Bennett, Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Victoria, will be speaking at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto about identity cards in Canada. Details here and in the full press release below the fold. . . . [more]

For my must read of the week, I recommend FEED: The Razorfish Consumer Experience Report . Came across it yesterday.

Its stated mission is to help people to gain a better understanding of how technology affects today’s digital consumer experience and explore the emerging trends that will shape those experiences for years to come. It talks about the rise of search as a primary mode of navigation, the widespread adoption of Web 2.0 features and technologies, and how the increase in mainstream social media usage have fundamentally altered the consumer landscape. The main point is that for brands to remain . . . [more]

I attended an American Association of Law Libraries webinar on screencasting and podcasting this week. I heard about this session via Slaw and decided to attend to see if this tech would fit in nicely with our current Intranet offerings.

Kerry Fitz-Gerald, Reference Librarian, Seattle University School of Law Library and Rita Kaiser, Reference Services Librarian, King County Law Library educated and inspired me. The session was just over an hour, and due to my longitunal location ran from 11 a.m. to 12ish.

I was so inspired, I bought a headset with a mic at lunch, and proceeded to avoid . . . [more]

I doubt that this is much of a surprise to the law library community. US New and World Report has discovered that special librarianship is a great career choice for those who enjoy watching politics. I can’t imagine doing this job without some interest in and knowledge of the machinery of government and the workings of the political process!

Other jobs mentioned in the article: lobbyist, tour guide, reporter, translator/interpreter, journalist. Folks, I think we picked the right one (although journalism wouldn’t be bad…)

If you weren’t following your current career, what would you do?

(Hat tip to the Law . . . [more]