The following is by guest blogger Professor Kathryn ArbuckleProfessor Kathryn Arbuckle is Law Librarian at the John A. Weir Memorial Law Library, University of Alberta. She teaches legal research, and has lectured in legal information sources at the Schools of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta and Dalhousie University. Kathryn was previously employed as a librarian and FOIPP administrator with the Nova Scotia Civil Service and as a researcher with the Nova Scotia Royal Commission on Health Care. She has been the treasurer of the Canadian Library Association, and is active in a number of professional . . . [more]

Ce concept de “Grey Lit”, tel que défini par Michael Lines ce matin, m’était totalement inconnu avant que les responsables du présent blogue eurent la bonne idée d’en faire un thème particulier. De plus, je fus ravi de constater en lisant ce même billet, dans une liste d’illustrations offertes par Michael, que ma dernière intervention sur la récente convention internationale sur les contrats électroniques constituait justement du “Grey Lit”.

Michael, comme Monsieur Jourdain disait à son Maître de philosophie dans le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, je pourrais donc vous dire:

« Par ma foi, il y a plus de quarante ans que

. . . [more]

Although it’s not quite grey literature, the announcement by the UK’s OPSI (Office of Public Sector Information) that it has has started providing RSS feeds for Acts and Statutory Instruments for UK, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales is a case of nice timing for this week’s theme on SLAW. It is some consolation for not having official UK statutes online yet! The link from the feed takes you to the full text of the act, the S.I., draft S.I. or Explanatory Notes – a good new resource for those tracking current UK legislation. . . . [more]

Despite Simon’s description of me‘Redoubtable’ has a fairly mixed range, from prominent and esteemed, through formidable, to “appalling, dire, dreadful”, I can’t claim to be much of an expert in GL, so my approach to being the “lead” of this Theme Week will be less as an august guide (though I suppose I am an August guide), and more as a tourist, perhaps even a “redoubtable” one. In any case, I’ll make my comments and hopefully the rest of you can fill in the important bits I miss.

Because GL in the legal world is considerably less known and collected . . . [more]

I’m not often kind to Microsoft. Oh I try to keep my skepticism, shall we say, in check here on Slaw, but left to my own devices, as I am at home, I live the smug life of the switcher, using Firefox on my Mac and forgetting to worry about virus protection. But inovation happens at MS too, and this Fillip is about one of their rather more remarkable achievements, Photosynth.

Photosynth has the ability to unify a number of images by identifying common reference points and building a combined image out of the parts. This might not sound . . . [more]

An article in today’s Globe and Mail came to attention this morning, and I thought it may be of interest (though not necessarily news) to Slaw readers, perhaps in particular other Canadians and Wikipedia users. It seems a young man from Ottawa, Simon Pulsifer, is Wikipedia’s “busiest contributor”, having created 2000-3000 articles under his own name and edited 78,000 others, according to the Globe article.

I say this is not necessarily news as the Globe by no means broke this story: a quick web (not wikipedia) search on Mr. Pulsifer yielded several interviews and articles from earlier in the year . . . [more]

IPRsonline.org is an internet portal on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and Sustainable Development. It contains a selection of relevant online documents and resources related to IPRs and sustainable development including a guide to IPRs, proposals submitted to the WTO, discussion papers classified by topics, a calendar of IPRs related events, latest news on IPRs, and links to listservs and relevant institutions working on IPRs.

Here are three sites dealing with international human rights that have recently come to my attention (thanks to Lo-Fi Librarian, Law Librarian Blog, and a third source that's slipped off my screen).

It’s my pleasure to announce that Slaw will have its second theme week starting Monday, August 7 — yes, the Monday that’s holiday Monday for most of the country. The theme is grey legal literature and our theme leader is the redoubtable Michael Lines, Slawyer and Law Librarian and Information Coordinator / Bibliothécaire et coordonnateur de l’information at the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice / Forum canadien sur la justice civile in Edmonton.

Grey lit is a very broad concept, which, until Michael focuses us more precisely, might be said to comprise online literature that’s neither available through one . . . [more]

I’ve been watching the dial creep up – like a teenager wondering if they’ll be in a car when the odometer clicks over.

And Slaw’s Grand Day is upon us. A thousand posts is a respectable number, by any one’s count.

So a few thanks –

First to Simon Fodden – the other Simon – whose brain child this was, and who has stuck with us through thick and thin, and dedicated his significant technical and cultural skills to making this networked community work.

To our Slaw core, who’ve exposed their brains, their passions – and their quirks –

. . . [more]

At my wife’s library, the new books contained one by an unexpected author – at least in the poetry section – Lazar Sarna

Lazar Sarna’s He Claims He Is the Direct Heir$14.95 paper 0-88984-282-3, 72 pp., 6 x 9, The Porcupine’s Quill, Nov. 2005 introduces a new tone of voice into Canadian poetry. It is wry and droll, an unexpected melange of Jewish humour and Surrealism.

This led me to wonder about other lawyer poets – I guess that many of the Slaw Readers who slogged through Professor Black’s tome on Admiralty Law never knew about his other life as . . . [more]

This morning’s TimesCuriously, the clause has been floating around since at least 2002. is reporting on a clause from a financing – for those trying to read it on a BlackBerry, it reads:

Upon the occurrence of the end of the world before full payment and performance of the Notes and Drafts, the Notes and Drafts, at the option of the Required Banks, will become immediately due and payable in full and may be enforced against the Company by any available terrestrial, extra terrestrial or spiritual procedure. For remedial purposes and for purposes of determining the relative equities

. . . [more]