Supreme Court of Canada - Subscribing to New Library Titles

The Supreme Court of Canada provides a list of new acquisitions from their website. You can also subscribe to an e-mail of the list from this page: Supreme Court of Canada - Subscribing to New Library Titles. While most of us can't borrow from this collection, I think this would be useful for those of us doing collection development to see what is coming out.

LLRX.com - Trends in Blog Searching

Guide to blog searching on LLRX: "Trends in Blog Searching" by Christina K. Pikas, updated May 24, 2004.

I've Been Indexed!

At least one reader to this blog has found it through BlogSearchEngine. In particular, from the category Job blogs and career blogs. It is described as "Blogs by people who hate and love their jobs and careers." Hmmm...I wonder which category they think I fall into? 8-)

What's New in Hein-On-Line

HeinOnline keeps getting bigger and better. Take a look in the What's New in Hein-On-Line section under May 28, 2004: lots of new content added. For Canadian content, coverage of the Alberta Law Review has been expanded.

If you haven't used this service before, it has full-text searchable periodicals (especially legal periodicals) with PDF version available for those fresh-from-the-photocopier printouts. This has made a lot of materials available to us on a just-in-time basis, so we have found a subscription to be well worthwhile.

World Treaty Index

Picked this tip up from the Intlaw listserv today: World Treaty Index from the Human Rights Education And Research Network . It is a test database so far.

I tested it by subject search. The subjects are coded, so you have to look at the table first to determine what subject you want from the list. For example, for treaties on legal subjects, select "9legal". If you fill in more than one search field, such as subject and party, both search conditions must be met (i.e. it treats it like a Boolean "and"). It is an InMagic DBText WebPublisher database which is what we use in my office. I found the word wheels to be a little slow at responding (a common WebPublisher problem or problem with the server?) . In the results, click on the treaty number for more details. As far as I can tell, links to the full text of treaties is not given although best bet for source is given. It does not appear to be comprehensive, but definitely has cites to a lot of treaties that otherwise might be inaccessible.

Something's Fishy: New Uses for DNA Evidence

I confess! Despite the heading, this has nothing to do with law or libraries, but I thought it was interesting. University of Guelph is looking for old mounted salmon so they can use the DNA to determine if salmon in Argentina's Patagonia region might have originated in Canada: "U of G casting a net for old Atlantic salmon". Being a U of G alumni, I am posting it here to help out in case anyone has old salmon cluttering up the attic.

Lessons learned:
- DNA testing ain't just for people;
- being a pack rat is not always a bad thing.

Big City Mayors Caucus

The mayors of Canada's twenty-two largest cities are meeting today in Edmonton to discuss strategy for municipalities with regard to the upcoming Federal election. Here is the Press Release from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Lessons learned - Ontario regulations

A regulation comes into force the day it is filed at the Regulations Office, unless otherwise stated in the regulation; however, regulations are not generally available to the public until published on e-Laws (a new section called Regulations as Filed)possibly a day or two later, or in the Ontario Gazette, possibly weeks later.

We contacted the Regulations Office to obtain a reg that had been filed that might affect one of our clients, but could not obtain a copy. At best they would let us into their office to view the regulation. We then contacted a ministry responsible for drafting the regulation; once we found the 'right' person, we were able to obtain a copy.

Lessons learned:
- even if a reg is in force and affects you, you may not be able to access it immediately;
- never give up;
- all you need to do is find the one 'right' person to help you.

New blogging features

Blogger, the service I have used to create this blog, has had some recent improvements to the features available at the basic (i.e. free) level. I haven't had much time to review what is available, but among the improvements: more templates available, so I would have more choice in the blog page design; postings as separate pages so that individual pages can be bookmarked; and the ability to allow others to add comments to my messages. When I have more energy I will look into making these changes. Stay tuned!

Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 has Royal Assent

More changes on the privacy front: Ontario's new Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004, received Royal Assent on May 20, 2004. It is contained in Schedule A to Health Information Protection Act, 2004, S.O. 2004, c. 3 (Bill 31). The bulk of it comes into force later in the year.

Back to real life...

I arrived back home last night from the CALL Conference (Canadian Association of Law Libraries) in Quebec City. I carried my laptop all the way there with the hopes of blogging each evening about the things I was learning at the conference, but once again was disappointed. I spent an hour on the phone with the Internet supplier for the hotel trying to get my Ethernet connection to work. No luck. The Internet room at the conference was also busy whenever I checked, and I didn't really want to miss any of the conference for this purpose.

So, sorry to those who were not there and who have been checking back here!

That being said, it was a pleasure to meet people from across the country, and always a surprise to meet someone who had read this blog at some point. If nothing else, this proved to be a good discussion point.

I missed a good part of the session on blogging and RSS, but did see the last half hour which proved helpful. I also learned a number of things from talking with the speaker afterward. Once I dig out my notes will post useful info here about blogging.

Aside from going to CALL looking to learn the practical lessons, I also went seeking some answers about my own direction. I feel I have attained--or almost attained--a number of goals I set out for myself after completing library school ten years ago. This perhaps sounds a bit cold and clinical. I never articulated specific goals at that time, but did some similar thinking and soul searching e.g. what do I want to do with my life now? I am a believer in serendipity and seeing where life takes me, but also I like to work hard toward specific goals and keep myself open to possibilities. It is the specific goals I need. Whether I get to the goal is actually besides the point; it is the journey toward that goal that is important. I have no specific conclusions yet, but was fortunate to have the opportunity to explore a few different ideas. Stay tuned. 8-)

Quicklaw changes

It is very worthwhile reading the announcements section for Quicklaw, either on their website www.quicklaw.com or on the Quicklaw news screens. Some recent tidbits:

"Enhanced Document Delivery - New Feature on Quicklaw(TM)" (May 11, 2004) - apparently as of tomorrow, the Web Browser Interface will allow e-mail, printing, and saving of multiple documents from search results. Read the announcement for the details--sounds very useful.

"QuickCITE(TM) Case Citator Enhancements (QC)"(April 2, 2004) - Ten new "History of Case" terms have been added to the citator. See this announcement for the full list. The scope screen in QC has the definitions of the new terms.

Library of Alexandria discovered

Thanks to BBC News for this news item: "Library of Alexandria discovered". Incredible.

Federal Depository Program issue

Summary of this urgent issue from the Ontario Library Association including sample letter for letter-writing campaign.

Making Yourself Understood

In light of my recent goof with someone's name on a listserv, this is a timely article pointed out to me: "Making Yourself Understood". From the Conference Board website (didn't know they had publicly available articles on their site!). Actually, this article should be good since it covers all kinds of business writing, from e-mail to business plans. I look forward to reading it.

the [non]billable hour

A few people have asked me which blogs I read. At some point I will probably include a proper list on my page. For now, I want to point out the best law firm-related blog I have found: the [non]billable hour. Matthew Homann, attorney and mediator, has just set up a small law office. Most of his postings regard marketing the law firm and are commentary on ideas posted in a number of blogs he monitors. Some great, fresh ideas. Really worth a read if you work in a law firm.

Designing and Maintaining Law Library Web Sites

Article from AALL, "Designing and Maintaining Law Library Web Sites: Some Practical Considerations" by Kent Milunovich (in PDF). This article is a couple of years old; some of the points are already outdated, but essentially a good checklist of items to include on a law library web page. He has included some things I hadn't thought of adding to ours. I laughed at the part stating we should update our site on a monthly or quarterly basis. My goal is to feed info to our site continuously throughout the day in the course of our work. In the world of RSS immediacy is everything.

Okay, I think this is my last posting for tonight. Do I get to docket my time surfing work-related topics? 8-)

AALL Universal Citation Guide

AALL has anUniversal Citation Guide available in PDF format from their website. Complements the Blue Book of citation. Worth adding to our catalogue, I think.

Succession Planning

Presentation from CALL 2003 by Yasmin Khan and Vicki Whitmell: "Succession Planning Strategies for Law Libraries". Some important suggestions here in a number of areas; I am currently looking at the suggestions regarding associations.

End of an Era

Announcement today from LexisNexis Canada: President and CEO Hugh Lawford and Chief Technology Office Dick von Briesen, co-founders of Quicklaw, will be retiring July 15th. Current COO of LexisNexis Canada, Michael Pilmer, will succeed Hugh Lawford as President and CEO.

Truly the end of an era. Quicklaw was the original electronic service for the legal community in Canada. It will be interesting to see what tribute will be paid them at the upcoming CALL conference--it feels that this announcement came just in time for this.