ALLA (WA) News Blog

Cross-posted from multiple mailing lists The IFLA Law Libraries Section with Public Libraries Section & Government Information and Official Publications Section is seeking proposals for papers to be presented at a session to be held at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Columbus, Ohio (USA), August 13–19, 2016. Theme : “Bringing the Law to the Library: Connections, Collaboration, and Community in Support of Access to Justice and the Rule of Law". Session Theme People around the world need government and legal information, but often they are not located near a physical law library collection and they lack the means or knowledge to access to online legal resources. For most users, navigating the finer points of legal materials in any format requires some assistance. Public librarians have front-line access to people who want to use legal resources but they are often not trained in the use of those resources, in print or online. This session will focus on ...

Readers may have seen reports recently that the board of the American Association of Law Libraries has proposed renaming the organisation as the Association for Legal Information . The final decision yet to be made by members, but this blog post from an American law librarian offers thoughtful commentary on the issue. From her perspective, the name "librarian" is not necessarily neutral and may not be adequately inclusive. Moreover, in a profession so defined by constant change, it makes sense for the association to be open to new possibilities afforded by a new identity. The full post offers more insights on the landscape of law librarianship in general. What if the Australian Law Librarians' Association considered a similar change? Hat tip: ALLA(WA) Vice President - Natalie McDonald. Legal Information Manager, Lavan Legal.

Formats of content available under CC licences. Graphic from the  State of the Commons report 2015,  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .  Glyphicons by Jan Kovařík CC BY 3.0 It was reported this month that since 2002, creators have applied 1 billion Creative Commons licences to their works allowing others to access, share, and reuse them for free. According to the State of the Commons report : "If we want to live in a digital world that is fair, diverse, vibrant, serendipitous, and safe for everyone, we will have to choose to make it that way. If that world is going to be accessible, equitable, and full of innovation and opportunity, it will require our leadership to foster and defend these ideals. Founded in 2001, Creative Commons has created legal and technical infrastructure that is fundamental to the Web we know and love. Today, our work goes beyond the ubiquitous CC licenses to foster cooperation and sharing, support ...

Legal Information Management http://journals.cambridge.org/ LIM Volume 15   /   Issue 04   , December 2015, pp 207 - 286 Published Online on 14th December 2015 Editorial Editorial David Wills   Legal Information Management   ,   Volume 15   ,   Issue 04   , December 2015, pp 207 - 207   doi: 10.1017/S1472669615000535 ( About doi ) Published Online on 14th December 2015   [ abstract ]   Obituary Rikki Breem 1934–2015 Legal Information Management   ,   Volume 15   ,   Issue 04   , December 2015, pp 208 - 209   doi: 10.1017/S1472669615000547 ( About doi ) Published Online on 14th December 2015   [ abstract ]   Feature Article The Raven, the Writing-Desk and the Reports: a Sesquicentennial Tale of Nonsense and Law Report Reform Alison Million   Legal Information Management   ,   Volume 15   ,   Issue 04   , Decemb...

The 2016 IFLA World Library and Information Congress will be held in August in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The 2016 National Committee is offering a fellowship grant to librarians outside North America to attend the conference, covering travel, registration, and accommodation. Applications are due on 31 December 2015. For more information, visit the IFLA conference website .

Justis publishing have released a free version of their latest platform, JustisOne. You can register for a free account here  which will provide you with access to all case law featured on their platform from 2011 onwards.

Ever read the Australian Law Librarian and thought “I could do that”? Ever wanted to share your legal research skills with your professional colleagues? Ever felt the desire to give in to your inner editorial genius? (Are you deeply moved by the correct placement of the Oxford comma?) Well here is your chance. The Australian Law Librarian is seeking volunteers to assist with the Journal in the following roles: A guest editor for one issue of the journal Sourcing articles Writing articles Proof reading and preparing articles for publication  If you are interested in this great opportunity for service and professional development, please contact ALLA(WA) President Alice Hewitt as soon as possible. Joining the Australian Law Librarian team would be a great opportunity to develop connections and produce a great publication. What a better way to start the new year?  

Fiona, Mawghan, and Linda were selected by their fellow ALLA(WA) members to be awarded ALLA certificates of appreciation in 2015. Thank you all for their service, leadership, and mentorship. Fiona Archibald Fiona’s dedication to ALLA (WA) and her long standing commitment as a valuable member of the WA Committee show that she is a worthy recipient of a Certificate of Appreciation. The Committee has relied heavily on her knowledge of ALLA and of law librarianship – and her impeccable editing skills are appreciated almost as much as her good humour and caring. She has previously put great effort into coordinating the ALLA (WA) blog and we are grateful for all her valued contributions over the years. Mawghan Elverd Mawghan has gone above and beyond the call of duty over the course of her presidency of ALLA (WA) and service to the Committee. Not only did she put a lot of energy into leading ALLA (WA), she even volunteered to stay on as President for a second term. She remains a valu...

ALLA(WA) members gathered on a warm evening in the CBD to close out 2015 with food, drink, and laughter at the annual Christmas function. LexisNexis continued to provide generous sponsorship of the event, and four fortunate members came away with gift vouchers to kick off the season: Stephen Griffiths, Department of the Attorney General (WA) Alice Hewitt, Murdoch University Jenny Lucre, Department of the Attorney General (WA) Natalie McDonald, Lavan Legal Thank you, LexisNexis, for your support! Beyond the usual festivities, the evening was a very special one, as three members were presented with certificates of appreciation from ALLA. Congratulations to Fiona Archibald, Mawghan Elverd, and Linda McNamara. Read more about their contributions here .

Did you know that the publisher Justis has a blog ? Even if you don't subscribe to their products, you might find the blog to be a useful current awareness tool for UK and EU law. A couple of times per week, posts on the blog summarise and discuss key judicial decisions and legislation passed in Europe. Feature articles and research tips also occasionally appear. Visit the blog to have a look and sign up for notifications.

The Harvard Law School Library is seeking a new Executive Director. There is no date or deadline on the job posting , but it was mentioned on the Library's blog on 23 November 2015. The job description summary is fascinating for those of us who work in very different environments: "The Executive Director oversees the operations and programmatic efforts of the largest academic law library in the world. In partnership with the Vice Dean of Library and Information Resources, she or he sets the budget priorities for the library and manages its approximately fourteen million dollar budget. The ED provides strategic planning for the library’s departments, services, and over fifty-person staff. As the administrative leader of the library, the ED manages relationships with the central Harvard Library staff working in the law library and their supervisors in the central Harvard Library. The Harvard Law School Library is home to the Library Innovation Lab and the successf...

Did you know? On the State Law Publisher website , when you go into the versions page for an act, there's a new option called Compare, which will show the difference(s) an amending act has made. So for instance, when clicking on: Compare between: [12 Dec 2005, 05-b0-02] and [09 Apr 2006, 05-c0-06] ...here is an example what is shown: ALLA(WA) Committee member - Anne Young. KM Librarian (Litigation and Regulatory), DLA Piper.

A recent post by Nate Russell on the Slaw blog begins with a brief discussion of "judicial quips" that scoff at the notion of citing Wikipedia in legal context. This cliched reaction or ridicule, though, can obscure the potential value of taking a crowdsourcing approach to assembling a compendium of authoritative and up-to-date information. Russell introduces Clicklaw Wikibooks  as an emerging example of open access legal information with contributions drawn from multiple sources: "Clicklaw Wikibooks takes the information locked away in booklets, guides and other resources for self-represented people, and releases it in several different ways to promote accessibility, from EPUBs, to smart SEO-friendly webpages, to books in print, on demand, in libraries, etc. The Clicklaw Wikibooks platform is a customized install of MediaWiki. As the name implies, its emphasis is on “books” (rather than stand alone “articles” per se). It currently hosts 20 or so titles and it loo...