Thanks to everyone who replied (in such depth) to my question about sources for Confederation research – there’s certainly far more there than I realised. It got me thinking that there’s really a need for some form of publication or research guide (linking to online sources). It’s something I’d like to put on my ‘to do’ list at Osgoode and get started over the next year – creation of a Web-based guide to Confederation research – that would link to online sources, but also to the scanned text of the various works (many of which, as has been pointed out, . . . [more]

Remember horn books? They’re now available in digital downloads. This just in from Eagan, MN:
VitalSource and Thomson West Meet Growing Demand for Digital Law Study Guides

Full story here or here. . . . [more]

I don’t want to seem too promotional of any single vendor of legal research products since I use all of them and obtain no financial reward for my recommendations, but I continue to be amazed by HeinOnline, who recently announced they have over 1,100 law journals participating in their online collection (requires a subscription, for a fee). Their journal collection is easily browsable, and although there is keyword searching, I tend to use it only as a source of an article to which I already have a citation. What is nice about their journal collection is that most journal . . . [more]

For the interest of the other KM inclined Slawsters… Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak, two of the biggest names in KM, are now blogging at The Babson Knowledge Blog.

Here is a link to the inaugural post, and a link to the RSS Feed.

Connie has also published a great set of notes from Tom Davenport’s keynote at KM World and Intranets 2005. . . . [more]

What lies on the other side of the link below is a maundering ponder on information and its place in the scheme of things, now that technology has wedded itself to the right side of that previously innocent word, and on how legal information differs from the other kinds, if at all. It’s a subject that fascinates me but one about which I know very little, and so this essay, if it can be said to rise that high, is my way of starting a thought process aimed at letting me learn. . . . [more]

Regulating Search? is the first academic conference devoted to search engines and the law. The symposium will bring together technologists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, executives, lawyers, computer scientists, and activists to discuss the emerging field of search engine law. It will examine trends in litigation involving search engines, identify the interests that are implicated by the increasing legal control of search, and discuss appropriate public policy responses.
Regulating Search: A Symposium on Search Engines, Law, and Public Policy
December 3, 2005

Looks interesting. But not nearly as interesting as when I thought it was going to be about searching for and within . . . [more]

A news story on today’s (Nov 22nd) law.com email noted that apparently 58% of Am Law 200 firms use the colour blue in marketing their firm (“conveys a feeling of authority of royalty, as well as a sense of calm”). Only 2% use green (“perhaps, the study suggests, lawyers may want to shy away from such stark allusions to money.”) The impact of other popular colours (red, gray, brown) is also discussed.

Does legal research (as opposed to law generally) have a “colour”? As I survey the limited number of law books in my office and browse some legal content . . . [more]

I’m sure a contributor or reader of SLAW can enlighten me on a point of Canadian historical legal research that has stumped me. Since coming to Canada I’ve looked (on and off, and without a great deal of thoroughness I must admit) for a tool that will give the “Founders” view of the Constitution. S omething equivalent to the Australian Federation Debates compilation. Federation in Australia, and the Constitution of 1901, grew out of a series of debates held in the capital cities of the then colonies during the 1890s. Everything that was said was recorded by hansard reporters and . . . [more]

(Link hat tip to Michel-Adrien Sheppard aka Library Boy)

On November 14, 2005, Canadiana.org announced receipt of a new grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Culture Online (CCO) program.

At a time when there seem to be endless cutbacks for these types of programs, it’s nice to see consistent funding for the digitization of our national history. It’s been quite a while since I last checked in on CIHM, and I found clicking around the ECO project to be an enjoyable experience – and highly recommended!

From the press release:

“Canada in the Making, now

Missed in all of the diplomatic to-ings and fro-ings over control of internet governance and the domain naming system was a fascinating report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on The Internet of Things. This internet of things combines to create a network that is literally everywhere and which becomes increasingly intelligent: the report points to four key technologies, all at advanced stages, that will enable ubiquitous network connectivity: RFID (radio frequency identification) tags, sensor, embedded intelligence and nanotechnology.

Nicholas Negroponte spoke of his vision of an entirely new networked world, far more ubiquitous than the network of

It must have been a decade ago in DC when I heard Dov Seidman tell a group of sceptical partners that he (and an adjunct group of academics, powered with technology) could seize a significant part of the market for business clients who wanted legal research.
Since then his business, LRN, has prospered, as can be seen in this press release from LRN about Dupont, which has contracted its outside legal research to Dov for the last 8 years:

A new multi-year agreement for online ethics and compliance education will extend a three-year relationship that has assisted DuPont in

Following up on the post that resulted from my trip to India just before Slaw started, have a look at Tony Williams’ recent piece in Legal Week on the topic of outsourcing. Williams was Managing Partner of Clifford Chance before leaving to head up Andersen Legal – which was a casualty of Enron. His consulting firm site Jomati has some interesting perspectives on trends, generally from a European perspective. For a different take on outsourcing see http://www.jomati.com/NewFiles/cloutsourcing_nov04.pdf . . . [more]