Google Scholar adds legal content
Submitted by Susannah Tredwell on November 17, 2009 - 11:29am.Google has announced that, effective today, you will be able to use Google Scholar to find and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts.
Simply go to Google Scholar, enter your search, and click on the "Legal opinions and journals" radio button. Search results will include links to the cases as well as articles that refer to them. Keep in mind that you will not be able to get the full text of all cases and articles; in some cases you will only get citation information.
"Doing More with Less"
Submitted by Susannah Tredwell on October 29, 2009 - 2:24pm.The 2009 edition of the Professional Legal Management Week Magazine has an article on "Doing More with Less: the Librarian Approach". The article starts off by noting that "more than 73 percent of law firm libraries ... experienced budget cuts" and goes on to discuss how law librarians can strategically manage the library budget so that the firm gets the best possible resources given their budget.
Another article "Doing More with Less: Innovative ideas from small law libraries" by David Whelan looks at ways small law libraries in Ontario have managed to use inexpensive or free tools to provide library services. Technologies and tools used include Zotero, LogMeIn and RSS feeds.
Update from CALL's Vendor Liaison Committee
Submitted by Susannah Tredwell on October 21, 2009 - 8:01am.Dear CALL-eagues,
The Vendor Liaison Committee has been very active this fall. We recently released the Price trends report and we have been working on issues raised at the business meeting at the CALL conference in May. We have been looking at how to make effective use of CALL-L for vendor issues and have put together some suggestions for using this tool. This piece (http://www.callacbd.ca/images/File/Vendors%20SIG/using_call_l_vendor_issues.doc) along with our established Librarian-Vendor Relations – Best Practices (http://www.callacbd.ca/images/File/Vendors%20SIG/VLC_checklist(1).htm) provides practical advice for library staff to manage the vendor client relationship.
Vendor pricing trends for 2010
Submitted by Susannah Tredwell on October 20, 2009 - 12:08pm.From: Canadian Association of Law Libraries List [mailto:CALL-L@listserv.unb.ca] On Behalf Of Shaunna Mireau
Sent: October 20, 2009 9:39 AM
To: CALL-L@listserv.unb.ca
Subject: VLC - Price Trends 2010
PRICE TRENDS 2010
It is an established tradition for the Vendor Liaison Committee to share pricing trends at this time of year. Here are the various publisher price trend predictions the Committee has assembled:
Canada Law Book is advising a 3% to 6% price increase for print and electronic products.
Carswell price increases will be in the 5-7% range for print products.
CCH Legal/Business/Tax subscription products will increase approximately 3-9%. The price increase for Legal/Business books available in print should be in the 2-5% range and for our Tax books in a 5-10% range for 2010.
Éditions Yvons Blais price increase for books should be in the 3-5% range. The increase for online products is in the range of 3-7%.
Emond Montgomery Publications price increases will be selective and will not exceed 2-5%.
Victoria Courthouse Library - Librarian Job Posting
Submitted by Susy Caird on October 14, 2009 - 11:19am.Photos from the September Seminar...
Submitted by Agathe Holowatinc on October 1, 2009 - 2:04pm.The first VALL seminar for the 2009/2010 season, in our new location, the Shangri-La, and featuring guest speaker Guy Robertson - Emergency Response Planner for libraries, archives and information centres, was one to remember...
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend!
What is the future of charging back online services?
Submitted by Susannah Tredwell on September 28, 2009 - 6:50am.Greg Lambert has written an interesting article on the issue of charging back the costs of online services to clients: "Sorry Westlaw and Lexis - The Days of Passing Charges to Clients Are Numbered". There has been a lot of discussion in recent months about the future of the hourly rate for lawyers, and Greg discusses what the impact of alternative fee arrangements might be on recovering online costs:
"No longer will online research be seen as a pass-through cost to the client. Because the client will not be paying the attorney by the hour, they will not buy the idea that online charges are saving them money because it saves the attorney time. Clients will say that firms will need to bear the burden of the online research because, if it truly saves them time, then that means they should be able to spend less time on the client’s matter, thus the savings is really a benefit to the firm."
Some Libraries to Drool Over
Submitted by Susannah Tredwell on September 25, 2009 - 7:21am.As a change from all the legal questions: http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=78
Link courtesy of Dawn Urquhart
VALL September Seminar: Emergency Response Planning with Guy Robertson
Submitted by Agathe Holowatinc on September 18, 2009 - 2:29pm.
Please join us as we welcome Guy Robertson, disaster planning and risk management consultant for libraries, archives and information centres, to the first VALL Seminar of the 2009-2010 year.
For information on registration, click here. Please register by Tuesday, September 22.
Local Law Librarians Making a Difference
Submitted by Steve Matthews on September 15, 2009 - 4:21pm.It was so nice to see this story in today's Vancouver Sun: Raising the bar: Here's one library that's giving back.
Local law librarians Kathy Barry and Wilma Macfarlane are featured describing their Fiction Friday program, and how they've raised money for charities such as the Raise-a-Reader literacy program, the United Way & the Union Gospel Mission.
Congratulations to you both! Story photo captured below for posterity.
