CCH Canadian experienced email issues starting around Thursday August 12. Emails to Marty Clarke or other CCH departments or people may have not been received from that date until early this week. Please re-send any emails to Marty or colleagues to be sure they are received.

Marty Clarke
Key Account Manager - Western Canada
Legal and Business
CCH Canadian Limited - a Wolters Kluwer business
Phone: 403-289-9998
Email: marty.clarke@wolterskluwer.com
Web: www.cch.ca and www.training.cch.ca

A recent article by Laura Justiss ("A Survey of Electronic Research Alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw in Law Firms") looks at what alternatives exist to Lexis and Westlaw in U.S. law firms.

The abstract reads as follows:

Mrs. Justiss conducted a survey of law firm librarians in 2010 that identified electronic research database alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw and ranked them by subscription frequency. The survey included research databases for primary source alternatives; court docket and case information services; secondary sources for topical legal research and legal periodicals; financial, business and news sources; public records; and non-legal and legal-related sources, including intellectual property databases. The survey also generated information regarding suggested or mandated legal research policies in law firms for the use of alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw and examined their applicability to billable and non-billable research. Lastly, it examined the prevalence in firms of flat rate pricing agreements with Lexis, Westlaw or both.

The link to the article can be found here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1649471

Do you know a SLAIS alumnus with exceptional accomplishments that has been an inspirational role model in the library and information or archival field? This is your opportunity to help recognize them! 

The UBC School of Library, Archival and Information Studies Alumni Executive Committee calls for Distinguished Alumni nominations. Distinguished Alumni will be recognized at the SLAIS 50th Anniversary celebrations April 29^th – 30^th, 2011.

The nomination criteria and nomination form are attached.

Nomination forms are due November 1st, 2010. Please e-mail to SLAIS.Nominations@gmail.com

Please contact Christine Gergich (SLAIS Alumni Executive Committee member) at cgergich@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Thank you,
SLAIS Alumni Executive Committee

Ps. The 40^th SLAIS Anniversary Distinguished Alumni were:

From: UBC Alumni Affairs [mailto:melissa.forster@ubc.ca]
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 9:54 AM
To: arblue
Subject: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Peter

A challenging and rewarding position has recently become available within the Alberta Law Libraries. Reporting to the Information, Research and Training Services Manager, the successful candidate will be accountable for organizing and managing effective and efficient operations of the four Law Libraries located in Calgary. This responsibility includes the delivery of timely and relevant legal reference, research and training services to the judiciary, bar, crown prosecutors, government lawyers, Alberta Justice employees and the public. This position also provides considerable opportunity for participation in strategic planning and developing and implementing procedures. Providing skilled administration of the Calgary libraries and effective human resources management, the Calgary Librarian is a key figure in the continued growth and future success of Alberta Law Libraries' client services.

Are you looking to hire a student this fall? If so, we’d like to help.

Since 2002, the UBC Arts Co-op Program has offered employers access to some of the brightest and best SLAIS students to hire for 4- or 8-month paid, full-time co-op terms (or equivalent). Employers benefit by hiring highly motivated, enthusiastic graduate-level students studying the most recent techniques in the library, information management, and archival fields to help complete special projects or fill short-term vacancies.

Manager, Library Services

Location: Vancouver

Lang Michener’s Vancouver office is creating a new full time Librarian position to assume responsibility for management of the firm’s library and research services. The successful candidate will report to the firm’s Executive Committee and be responsible for the following objectives:

From the VALL Executive:

Please click for:

• Letter to the VALL Membership regarding B.C. Courthouse Library Subscriptions
• B.C. Courthouse Library Subscriber Notice

The American Lawyer 2010 library survey is now available online at http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202462829220&pLaw_Librarian_Survey_p__More_Bang_for_Fewer_Bucks (free registration required).

The article looks at how the recession in the United States has affected law libraries, along with lots of interesting statistics (hours billed back, percentage of online costs recovered, etc.) and some telling anecdotes:

"In the old days it used to be enough to say, my contract is for $100,000 a month, but I'm getting $500,000 of value," says one library director. "[But] my boss doesn't care about value, he cares that we get that $100,000 down to $75,000. His thinking is that the vendors should be happy just to have our business these days." She paused for a moment and added what her boss didn't realize, but what everyone who has ever worked in a law firm library has long known: "It doesn't work like that."