By Katie Tribe
The CCLA Library is proud and happy to provide a number of extremely useful electronic resources for free to the legal community. We provide free online access to Quicklaw, Criminal Spectrum, DivorceMate, and O’Brien’s Forms and Precedents, to name a few, and are currently working to provide you with a few new electronic goodies in the near future. When we say free, we mean free in every sense of the word; there are no passwords, time clocks, billable hours, or download limits when using these products in the library. We only offer free, unlimited access.
As librarians, we don’t just want to make the products available to you; we also want to teach you how to use them, and to use them effectively. We also know that many firms have these products available in-house, and sometimes just need a refresher that covers searching techniques and new features. To help you out, we are available to instruct you and troubleshoot for you, whether by scheduled appointment or whenever you happen to call or stop by the CCLA Library. We also regularly offer training sessions in the library.
Training sessions are advertised via the CCLA website and listserv, and generally happen in the library over the lunch hour. We try to schedule the sessions in a way that is convenient to the legal community. For example, we offer a fresh set of sessions every fall to coincide with all the fresh articling students entering the scene. The sessions are informal, and you are welcome to bring a coffee or your lunch (yes, that means eating in the library!) and stay for as much or as little as you wish. We are also available afterward to answer questions.
So far, these sessions have provided insight into programs such as Quicklaw and Criminal Spectrum, and we have plans in the works for a number of other specialized sessions in the future. We are currently offering a series on Quicklaw, and there is still room in the remaining sessions if you’d like to register! Registration simply involves sending a quick email to me, Katie Tribe, at ktribe@ccla-abcc.ca. Of course, if you happen to be in the courthouse that day and haven’t registered, we still encourage you to stop by. We always seem to find room for everyone! The remaining sessions (one of which is this Thursday) are as follows:
Thursday, March 4th, 2010 – Legislation
Learn how to use Quicklaw to effectively find statutes, regulations, and related case law.
Thursday, March 25th, 2010 – Secondary Sources
Learn about the commentary, journal articles, forms, and news pieces available on Quicklaw, and how to effectively locate them.
Thursday, May 27th, 2010 – Introduction to Quicklaw
An opportunity for incoming students and experienced lawyers alike to be introduced to or revisit the basics of Quicklaw.
Hope to see you there!