Mark your calendars for our last two training sessions of the year: December 6 (Westlaw) and December 8 (Quicklaw), each running from 12:00 – 1:00pm. Stop by the CCLA Library for one or both of the sessions to brush up on your research skills before the end of the year – and count it towards your CPD hours! Best of all, it’s free!

As always, the sessions are held in the CCLA Library, located in Room 2004 on the main floor of the Ottawa Courthouse, at 161 Elgin Street. If you would like to attend either of the following, or if you have any questions at all, drop me a quick email at blauritzen@ccla-abcc.ca. Bring your lunch with you, and light refreshments will be provided. I hope to see you there!

Westlaw Tools, Tuesday, December 6th, 12:00 to 1:00 PM
Skip the keyword search. Learn how to use the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest, Canadian Abridgment, and KeyCite features to very quickly narrow and find the most relevant case law, legislation, and commentary that you need. Westlaw basics will also be reviewed.

Quicklaw Tools, Thursday, December 8th, 12:00 to 1:00 PM
Let them narrow the search results for you. Learn how to use Quicklaw’s Canada Digest, Canada Quantums, and Quickcite features to search within the most relevant case law, legislation, and commentary, instead of starting from scratch. Quicklaw basics will also be reviewed.

For experienced members, these programs count for 1 Substantive Hour toward the annual LSUC CPD requirement. These CPD hours are not accredited for the new member requirement.

As Jen kindly introduced, my name is Brenda and I’m taking over as Reference Librarian here at the CCLA! It’s obvious to me that Katie did an amazing job here and it’s my biggest hope that I can continue on in that tradition.

By way of a brief introduction – I obtained my Masters in Information Studies at the University of Toronto, before doing some work at the Ontario Securities Commission law library. Most recently I have come from working as the Librarian at the Hamilton Law Association, the CCLA’s equivalent in Hamilton. On a more personal note, I’m probably one of the biggest nerds out there – video games, sci-fi/fantasy, board games – you name it! So stop by and say hello sometime, I promise I won’t bite (unless it’s the zombie apocalypse of course, then all bets are off).

Needless to say I’m extremely excited to be here and am really looking forward to working with and getting to know the legal community in Ottawa. And of course if you have any research questions my email (blauritzen@ccla-abcc.ca) and phone line (613-233-7386 ex.222) are always open!

This week, registrants for the Civil Litigation conference will be emailed a link to where they can download conference papers from our online system. If you are wondering how or if these papers can be loaded onto an iPad, the CCLA Library is here to help!

Join us on Wednesday, November 9th at 4:00 PM in the library for a short session to get you ready for the conference.

Please RSVP (or send any questions) to Jennifer Walker at jwalker@ccla-abcc.ca

You’ll need to bring:
1.  Your iPad
2.  The email address that was used to register you for the conference
3.  The registration number you received in an email to that email address once your payment was received
4.  Your Apple ID name and password (for downloading the App to read PDFs)

It’s important to have all of these with you for the session – you will not be able to download anything without them.

Outcomes:
1.  You’ll have an application that can read and store PDFs installed on your iPad (if you don’t have one already)
2.  All your conference papers for the Civil Litigation conference will be saved on your iPad
3.  You’ll know how to retrieve the papers later, when you need them at the Montebello

Some other information on apps:
There are many applications that can read PDFs, both paid and free, available from the App Store.  Feel free to download whichever app you would like.  During the session, we will be going through the process of downloading an app if there isn’t already one on your iPad.  I’ll walk you through both the paid and free apps, though you only need to download one.  We will be selecting “DocAS Lite” for a free option, and “GoodReader” as a paid option (the current cost is $4.99).  If you want to follow along with the session directly, please go ahead and download one of these apps before the session.  You can find them by searching for those exact names in the App Store.  Alternatively, I’ll show a bit of each program before I download them, so if you’d like to see the program in action, you can wait until we’ve looked at both and then download the program you prefer.  As always, if you choose a paid app, you must either have a credit balance on your Apple store account (from an Apple gift card), or have a credit card attached to the account for billing.

 

The CCLA is extremely excited to welcome our new reference librarian, Brenda Lauritzen, to the staff !  As you know, our previous reference librarian Katie departed from the CCLA at the end of August.  After a search with many, many excellent candidates, we’re thrilled to have Brenda joining us.  Most recently, Brenda held the role of Reference Librarian at the Hamilton Law Association (in other words, the CCLA’s equivalent in Hamilton).

Brenda’s first day will be Monday, November 7, 2011 – this coming Monday!  We  hope you’ll stop by to give her a friendly East Region hello and welcome her to the city.