Renovations: The Beginning

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

Replace the wallpaper, or just get rid of it altogether.

Is there a way to create more quiet space for researching?

A reference desk that looks into the library, with a lower desk to sit at with clients.

Could we try a new configuration of computer work spaces?

For the CCLA staff, the CCLA library and barristers lounge renovations project has been in the works for what feels like quite a long time.  For over a year, we’ve been discussing what we would like to fix, to change, to build, or to remove in order to create a refreshed, professional, and highly useful space for Ottawa lawyers.  Now that the CCLA has entered into a partnership with the local design firm inTempo, however, the fun (and hard work) can truly begin.

Renovating our space will be no small feat.  Not only are there a multitude of opinions, ideas, and suggestions for what we can and should do, but there’s also the matter of fundraising for this project, and for coordinating the work with the owners and managers of the Courthouse.  A renovation for a library is an incredibly fun and exciting time, though certainly not without a great deal of thought needing to be given to the overarching challenges and opportunities facing all libraries in the 21st century.  How many of these books will we keep?  How much more room for computers do we need?  What does the law library of the future look like?

Here in the library, part of our participation in this project will be to blog the renovation project from start (this post you’re reading) to finish (hopefully in 2013, in time for the CCLA’s 125th anniversary).  We hope to keep an ongoing journal on the renovation, providing both an inside look into the process, as well as a glance into the planning and rationale for some of the design decisions.  Your feedback and ideas will always be welcome, and we look forward to creating and sharing a new space for our legal community.


Free Quicklaw Session Today

Posted on by ktribe

A quick reminder of the free Quicklaw training session taking place today, Wednesday, May 30th, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM in the CCLA Library! There is still room in the session, so feel free to stop by and sit on the session if you happen to be in the Courthouse. All are welcome!

As always, the session is in the CCLA Library, located in Room 2004 on the main floor of the Ottawa Courthouse, at 161 Elgin Street. Just send me a quick email if you have any questions. Please feel free to bring your lunch; I’ll have some iced tea and snacks laid out as well. Hope to see you there!

Free Materials and Upcoming Training Sessions

Posted on by ktribe

Thanks to everyone who came out to the CCLA Library’s Westlaw training session earlier this month, and to Josée Provost for teaching us about the useful tools on Westlaw, along with some techniques for making research faster and more effective. If you missed the session, there is still another learning opportunity happening at the library later this month. Join us next week on Wednesday, March 30th from 1:00 to 2:00 PM for a session with Ron Jones on LexisNexis Quicklaw. Send me a quick email if you’re interested in attending, or feel free to stop by the library if you happen to be in the Courthouse that day.

A few people inquired about training and learning materials that might assist them in lieu of attending the session, so I thought I’d share links to some great free online resources offered by both Quicklaw and Westlaw.

To access Westlaw Canada support materials, including quick reference cards, guides, learning tutorials, and frequently asked questions, check out the Learning & Support section of Westlaw’s website by clicking here. Personally, my favourite features on Westlaw are its Keyciting for cases and legislation and the incredibly useful Canadian Encyclopedic Digest, so I suggest reading about those features in the training guide, or asking me about them the next time you’re in the library.

For Quicklaw support materials, including training demos, quick reference guides, training manuals, and cheat sheets, check out the Training Materials section of the LexisNexis site by clicking here. The training demos are particularly helpful and well done in this section, and I suggest checking out the demos entitled Advanced Terms and Connectors and Noting Up the Law if you aren’t already confident using these features.

As always, please feel free to get in touch with me or any of the other library staff if you have questions about these databases or any other resources in the library.

Hope to see you at the Quicklaw session next week on Wednesday, March 30th, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM. The session will be held in the CCLA Library, located in Room 2004 on the main floor of the Ottawa Courthouse, at 161 Elgin Street. Please feel free to bring your lunch; iced tea and snacks will be served!

Movie Passes Giveaway!

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

*Update: All the passes have been claimed – thanks for participating!*

The CCLA library has eight passes for two to give away for the advance screening of the new movie “The Lincoln Lawyer.”  The show time is tomorrow night (Wednesday March 16th) at 7:00 pm at the South Keys Cinemas.  “The Lincoln Lawyer” is based on a novel by Michael Connelly, and stars Matthew McConaughey in the title role.  You can read up on it here, here, or here.

If you want to win the passes, be one of the first eight people to email jwalker@ccla-abcc.ca with the answer to this lawyer-y question (we know you love law-themed movies and books!):

Name the Matthew McConaughey film where he plays another lawyer – a defence lawyer in rural Mississippi.

Passes will be available for pick-up at the CCLA library, as well as some other “The Lincoln Lawyer” promo goodies, so please be able to retrieve the passes by tomorrow at 5:00.

 

New Titles – February 2011

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

The beginning of 2011 started out a bit slow here at the library for new collections, but in the past two months combined, we’ve had some excellent new materials come into the library, some of which are listed below.   In particular, we’ve seen several new editions of key legal texts that we’re sure you’ll find useful during your research.   We expect that the new 3rd edition of The Law of Subdivision Control by Troister will be a hit, as will the new 8th edition of The Law of Search and Seizure in Canada by Fontana and Keeshan.  Another title we’re excited about – and we hope some of you will use and give us your feedback on – is the brand new Bullen & Leake & Jacob’s Canadian Precedents of Pleadings.  We’ve kept copies of this British series in the library for many years, so it is exciting to have a specifically Canadian edition available.  Our friends at the Hamilton Law Association library say that this title is proving quite popular with Hamilton lawyers, and for more information, check out this review from Ted Tjaden at Slaw.ca.

Texts

Canadian Civil Procedure Law, 2nd Edition (LexisNexis)

Libel, 2nd Edition (LexisNexis)

Witness Preparation: A Practical Guide (Canada Law Book)

The Law of Search and Seizure in Canada, 8th Edition (LexisNexis)

The Doctrine of Res Judicata in Canada, 3rd Edition (LexisNexis)

Capacity to Marry and the Estate Plan (Canada Law Book)

The Law of Subdivision Control in Ontario, 3rd Edition (Canada Law Book)

Bullen & Leake & Jacob’s Canadian Precedents of Pleadings (Carswell)


Continuing Professional Development

Employment Issues Arising on the Purchase and Sale of a Business 2010: What Business Lawyers Need to Know (LSUC)

The Six-Minute Debtor-Creditor and Insolvency Lawyer 2010 (LSUC)

 

 

What’s Your Favourite Legal Website?

Posted on by ktribe

As law librarians, Jen and I spend a lot of time thinking about legal resources – we’re constantly locating useful research materials for people, sourcing new books and electronic resources for the library’s collection, and thinking about instructional resources that we can create to assist you in doing your research. It’s only natural, then, for us to be a part of the CCLA’s Website Content Development Committee, which helps to source content and resources to be posted on the CCLA Website.

Of course, not just any resource can be posted online due to copyright (otherwise, we might just have a field day scanning legal textbooks and magazines for your viewing pleasure). Luckily for us, though, there is a lot of free and useful legal information available on the web these days, including blogs, research sites, not-for-profit and government databases, and scholarly legal journals and magazines.

Jen and I try to keep in the know by following local blogs, sharing resources with other librarians, and keeping track of the legal community on Twitter, but we’re sure that there must be great blogs and resources out there that we’re missing out on. That’s why we’d love to hear about your favourite legal website, blog, or online resource. If there’s something out there that you find useful or interesting, please drop us a line and let us know about it! Send us an email, message us on Twitter, or leave a comment below.

Sharpen Your Skills at the CCLA Library

Posted on by ktribe

The CCLA Library is pleased to offer free training sessions next month on two of the most popular and widely consulted legal research databases used in the practice of law today: LexisNexis Quicklaw and Westlaw Canada. Access to these powerful research databases is available for free on all the desktops in the CCLA Library, and CCLA Members, articling students, and members of the Bar and their staff are encouraged to take advantage of this access by visiting the CCLA Library.

Specialists will be joining us to offer guidance and training on how to more effectively search for useful case law, legislation, and commentary. Learn how to find results more quickly, and narrow them to find more specific and powerful precedents to support your arguments. Take your search beyond basic search terms by learning to effectively use case digests, note-up features, and Boolean operators. These sessions are an excellent opportunity for students and experienced legal professionals alike to refresh, sharpen, or broaden their online research skills. We encourage legal professionals of all skill levels to sit in on a session and learn some new techniques.

The sessions will be held in the CCLA Library, located in Room 2004 on the main floor of the Ottawa Courthouse, at 161 Elgin Street. Please feel free to bring your lunch; iced tea and snacks will be served.

Session dates and times are as follows:

Westlaw Canada – Wednesday, March 9th, from 1:00 – 2:00 PM.
LexisNexis Quicklaw – Wednesday, March 30th, from 1:00 – 2:00 PM.

Please send a quick email to the CCLA’s Reference Librarian, Kaitlyn Tribe (ktribe@ccla-abcc.ca) if you are interested in attending either of the sessions. We hope to see you there!

The CCLA Library is always interested in providing better training and services to members of the legal community. If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for training session topics, dates and times, or services, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re always happy to receive ideas and feedback!

New Titles – December 2010

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

Happy new year, readers!  While we’ve all moved on to 2011, there’s still the matter of our new books from last month to write about.  Last month, we received a great number of new editions of annual titles, as well as many, many continuing professional development materials.  We’re actually a bit swamped with them right now!  We’ll list them below, but you might not see them on our shelves just yet.  If you just can’t wait to get your hands on a copy, however, please stop by the desk – we might have it available for you to peruse before it’s ready to be on the shelves.

Since we have so many titles this month, I’ll proceed with the list without too much preamble.  As always, please let us know if you have any book recommendations for our collection!  Your recommendations are quite invaluable to us, and we love being able to put new titles on the shelf that we know our clients would like to use.

Texts

Protection of Privacy in the Canadian Private and Health Sectors 2011 (Carswell)

The 2011 Annotated Divorce Act (Carswell)

Canadian Environmental Legislation, 2010-2011 Edition (Canada Law Book)

Federal Access to Information and Privacy Legislation Annotated 2011 (Carswell)

Consolidated Bank Act and Regulations 2010-2011 (Carswell)

The 2011 Annotated Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of Canada (Carswell)

Document Registration Guide, 12th Edition (CCH)

The 2011 Annotated Ontario Labour Relations Act (Carswell)

The 201 Annotated Ontario Family Law Act (Carswell)

The 2011 Annotated Ontario Landlord and Tenant Statutes (Carswell)

The 2011 Annotated Ontario Children’s Law Reform Act (Carswell)

The 2011 Annotated Competition Act (Carswell)

Taxation of Trusts and Estates – A Practitioner’s Guide 2011 (Carswell)

Department of Finance Technical Notes – Income Tax, 22nd Edition (Carswell)

The 2011 Annotated Indian Act and Aboriginal Constitutional Provisions (Carswell)

The 2011 Annotated Ontario Human Rights Code (Carswell)

The Annotated Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security Act, 10th Edition, 2011 (CCH)

The 2011 Annotated Construction Lien Act (Carswell)

The 2011 Annotated Canada Labour Code (Carswell)

Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law Practice 2011 (LexisNexis)


Continuing Professional Development

Impaired and “Over 80” 2010 (LSUC)

Powerful Pleadings (LSUC)

The Six-Minute Family Law Lawyers 2010 (LSUC)

The Six-Minute Real Estate Lawyer 2010 (LSUC)

Taxation Issues in Real Estate Transactions (LSUC)

Securities Law Update 2010 (LSUC)

Corporate Commercial Law Seminar (Hamilton Law Association)

How to Succeed in the New Era of Discoveries (LSUC)

18th Annual Immigration Law Summit (LSUC)

New Lawyer Practice Series – Real Estate 2010 (LSUC)

Emerging Issues in Health Law (LSUC)

13th Annual Estates and Trusts Summit (LSUC)

Emerging Issues in Real Estate (Hamilton Law Association)

The 24th Annual Joint Insurance Seminar (Ontario Insurance Adjusters Association / Hamilton Law Association)




Library Holiday Schedule

Posted on by Jennifer Walker

The library will have reduced hours over the next few weeks.  Here’s our schedule for the holiday season:

Monday, December 20 – Thursday, December 23 – 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Thursday, December 24 – 8:30 am – 12:00 pm
Monday, December 27 – CLOSED
Tuesday, December 28 – CLOSED
Wednesday, December 29 – Thursday, December 30 – 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Friday, December 31 – 8:30 am – 12:00 pm
Monday January 3 – CLOSED

If you’re a CCLA member, you will still be able to access the library during those times when it is closed.

We’ll be back to our regular schedule on Tuesday, January 4, 2011.


We Like it Free: Legal Info on the Web

Posted on by ktribe

by Katie Tribe

Increasingly, Canadian legal information is made freely accessible online. Unless historical research is needed, it is rare to have to consult paper materials for legislation; it is now updated online very quickly after the law has changed, whereas it may take weeks for print materials to reflect the changes. While paid databases still offer valuable features, such as automatic citing references and links to secondary sources, notable cases of interest are also regularly made available via a number of government and not-for-profit sites, and come directly from the court where they were heard. Arguably, and of course depending on the particular skills of the researcher, certain types of primary legal information are now more reliable and authoritative when found online than when they are in print.

Perhaps the best and most well-known example of this is CanLII, the website run by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, which compiles Canadian legislation and case law and makes it searchable and downloadable via a user-friendly database. CanLII is a wonderful resource, as it allows researchers to enter search terms in the same way they might when using other popular search engines. It also has some very impressive features, especially when considering that it is a free resource. It recently added a “Reflex Record,” feature, which allows researchers to view related decisions and legislation and cases cited, and also adds subject headings, or keywords, below each case in its search results.

While CanLII is wonderful at organizing and helping researchers find Canadian legislation, it’s not the only option out there. Researchers and legal professionals can also often go directly to the source. The Supreme Court of Canada, Federal Court of Canada, Ontario Court of Appeal, Tax Court of Canada, and nearly all Ontario Administrative Tribunals make their recent decisions, if not all decisions, available for free online. The federal and provincial governments also make all legislation, including bills and regulations, freely available online, and their databases aren’t too bad, either. The CCLA Library maintains a list of Legal Links to government and not-for-profit sites that are useful for general legal research. We encourage you to have a look, check back often, and email us if you have any suggestions for new sites that may be useful to the legal community.

On that note, you’ll notice via the front page of the CCLA Website that we are currently looking for official CCLA Website Contributors for the Practice Portal areas of our site. The Practice Portal areas of the site are where we post articles, resources, forms, and website links that are relevant to specific practice areas, for example Family Law or Criminal Law. We’d really appreciate any and all content submissions, and no suggestion is too large or small; it may be a simple link, form, or resource suggestion, or a comprehensive opinion piece, article, or case summary – we’d love to see it either way. Help us to increase the amount of Canadian legal info available for free on the web by submitting some content. Send us a quick email to info@ccla-abcc.ca and we’ll be in touch! For more details, check out the recent call for submissions on the CCLA Website.