ALLA (WA) News Blog

The Department of Sport and Recreation may be able to offer work for a few weeks on a project to review and collate legal documents.  Please contact Renae Clement if you are interested, or know someone who may be. Renae Clement Librarian / Actg FOI Coordinator Department of Sport and Recreation Clearinghouse for Sport (WA Branch) (08) 9492 9870 or (08) 9492 9869 renae.clement@dsr.wa.gov.au

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/the-library-of-discarded-books-20130504-2izs2.html

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/but-what-if-i-cant-find-it-on-the-internet-20130526-2n5g5.html

Want to hear the next Call to the Bar? Justin is planning a bar hop mid-June so let him know if you want to come along.

Catherine Macgill (Law Librarian, Law Library, Supreme Court of WA) states - The current state of plans for the future of the Law Library collection is as follows. The recommendation to the Attorney General is that practitioners will have access to the new Supreme Court Library on a user-pays basis.  There has not as yet been any memorandum of understanding drawn up. A project team to resolve the issue (among other things) of service to practitioners is to be established with members from the Law Society, the Legal Practice Board, the Judiciary and the Department of the Attorney General.  This committee has not yet met. The State Reference Library and the City of Perth Library have been approached with the view to housing a law collection for public access.  Neither party was interested in doing so.

CPD seminar Wednesday, 15 May 2013 The rights of the unborn child, as the law currently stands in WA and the proposed amendments Mrs Lorraine Finlay, lecturer in criminal law at the Murdoch University School of Law, addressed a group of 15 delegates at a lunchtime brown bag seminar in Downings boardroom on Wednesday, 15 May.  She spoke on the rights of the unborn child, addressing a neglected area in WA legislation, and citing some cases which had touched the general public where, through no fault of the expectant mother, the unborn child had been lost through criminal action, without any recourse for justice.  Her fascinating presentation led to many questions from the floor, and further discussion in this informal setting.  In addition, some new points were raised, much to Lorraine's delight!  We all came away with some issues to digest. Thank you, Linda, for your hospitality at Downings! Belinda Eisenhauer

Joint Studies Institute Melbourne 13-16 February 2013 Report : Belinda Eisenhauer Introduction Kirsty and I were fortunate to attend the JSI Conference in Melbourne in mid-February 2013. We stayed in the conference hotel, the Rydges on Swanston Street, on the campus of Melbourne University, 10 minutes walk to the Law School (the oldest in the country, opening its doors in 1857). The thoroughness of the planning was evident from the start, with regular updates being issued to those who had registered, with useful tips such as where to find the weather conditions (especially for the international visitors) and the dress code for the three evening functions. No single detail had been forgotten – even the newly-introduced Myki electronic travel card had been provided for each delegate, ready for us to collect at our hotel reception. The JSI Conference has been hosted once before in Australia - in Sydney in 2004. There were 50 delegates from common law countries such a...

Twenty-four people attended the ALLA (WA) Easter breakfast held at Herbert Smith Freehills on 27 March.  Their wonderful coffee machine again received a good workout and we all enjoyed a light breakfast and an abundance of the obligatory Easter eggs. Belinda Eisenhauer and Kirsty McPhee reported back on the JSI that they attended in Melbourne in February.  The topics presented seemed as fascinating as they were diverse - plain packaging for cigarettes and cigars, rights of refugees and the behaviour of financial institutions.  The ladies were very enthusiastic and I think everyone at the breakast wished they could have been at the JSI too. Jenny Lucre

Called to the Bar - Now and Venn When I was working for a certain academic institution out Nedlands way (you work it out) I used to coordinate a monthly gathering of library workers. We would go to a different wine bar each month and blog a review. You can still see the reviews online here . Now that I work for a law firm in the city, which is ground zero for wine bars in Perth, I thought it was time to start doing this again, only this time for the ALLA WA blog. Plus, I can buy a drink for all those people I owe one to. Namely those that have provided me with scans of various law reports. These hopefully regular posts will be appearing under the title of “Called to the Bar”. Enjoy. For the first post of this re-badged venture I took a trip to Venn Bar . Venn operates on many levels, literally and figuratively. They have upstairs and ground floor areas and they also function as an art gallery. They have a cool gift shop too but that wasn’t open by the time I got there at about quarter...

From WAIN - Australian Libraries Copyright Committee presents FREE copyright training available to all interested persons. The Australian Libraries Copyright Committee is the primary policy body for the discussion of copyright issues affecting Australian libraries, with major members comprising the Australian Library & Information Association (ALIA), National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA), Council of University Librarians (CAUL) and National Library of Australia (NLA). Date: Thursday 6th June 2013 Time: 9:30am – 12:30pm (with repeat session 1:30pm – 4:30pm) Location: Great Southern Room, State Library of Western Australia ‘Get your collections out there: understanding the copyright framework around online collections’ follows on from last year’s ALCC training, which tackled the copyright basics. This year’s training aims to demystify copyright law for librarians looking to promote collections online, and help staff develop risk management guidelines for using copyright wor...

Latest News : ALIA Discussion Paper released 1 May 2013 Future of the profession The Future of the Profession is an ALIA Board project examining what the future holds for library and information services. The purpose of this paper is to promote discussion across the sector between library leaders, information service providers, vendors, practitioners, students, commentators, colleagues in Australia and internationally – anyone and everyone with an interest in the field. To find out more, download the document or comment on it, please visit the ALIA futures wiki. http://aliafutures.wikispaces.com/