ALLA (WA) News Blog

Creating Engaging Online Content for Library Users: Introducing Kahoot! and Padlet Thursday 7 October 11.00am (AWST) Michelle Clarke from K&L Gates and Anastasia Stepanovic from the University of Melbourne will share their knowledge of Kahoot! and Padlet, two free platforms that have helped them create engaging online content for library users. Register online : NOTE: This event is open to ALLA members only, please have your membership number with you when you register. As online learning replaces face to face library sessions, librarians may find themselves looking for affordable options to create interesting course content.  In this session two experienced librarians share their knowledge of Kahoot! and Padlet. Kahoot! Kahoot! is a widely used cloud-based tool to create and deliver teaching and testing quizzes. It’s used in educational institutions as an online game-based learning platform and includes a free component. In this online session Michelle Clarke from K&L Gate...

 ALLA’s first ever virtual conference is less than a day away, and sure, by now Zoom and Teams and virtual webinars have become standard (thanks Covid), but if you’re looking at two days of online conferencing this can be quite daunting. To help we’ve pulled together some tips on how to get the most out of (or just survive) an online conference. Before we get to those tips though, a quick word on the Social Event on Thursday night ( 23 September 5.30-7.00pm Perth time, via ZOOM ) - a live music quiz, brought to you by our friends (and Bronze sponsors) vLex and ALLA (Vic) President. A little birdy (ok, one of the hosts) told us to wear a hat, fascinator, hair accessory, origami, bird, pet monkey… err something on your head. Why? Is there a prize? Perhaps. Is it to be a great community building moment to embarrass us all equally about dumb hat choices? Also, perhaps. Either way, today’s blogger has got hers sorted, and she’s leaning away from fascinating. Now for the Tips. Be...

New information up on the Western Australian Legislation website [www.legislation.wa.gov.au] ... Provisions not yet in force There has been a change to the way uncommenced provisions (including uncommenced amendments) in WA legislation are shown on this website . The changes have been made in response to feedback that the way uncommenced amendments have been shown may not make it clear enough that the amendments have not in fact commenced. Principal legislation with uncommenced provisions In the case of principal legislation, past practice was to indicate in the body of the legislation that certain provisions have not come into operation, and include in a note to the legislation the text of the uncommenced provisions. The text of the uncommenced provisions is no longer included in a note. Instead an “Uncommenced provisions table” is included that lists the uncommenced provisions and where they can be viewed. In the case of subsidiary legislation, to see the text of the uncomm...

The Law Library at the David Malcolm Justice Centre has completed the merger of the Department of Justice Library with the old Law Library at the Supreme Court Stirling Gardens and has identified excess materials that are now on offer to interested parties on a first-come-first-served basis.  These excess materials have previously been offered to universities, the State Library, the Parliamentary Library, government libraries and community legal centres.  As the next step, the surplus materials will be available for viewing by the profession during business hours (8:30am-5pm)  from Wednesday 6  March through to Friday 8  March 2019  by appointment only .  To make an appointment to view the material at the old Law Library at the Supreme Court Stirling Gardens, please email the Law Library at  llwa@justice.wa.gov.au  or call the Law Library Reference Desk on (08) 9264 1498 by 5pm 5 March 2019.  In addition to the material held at the Sup...

On Friday March 16 th the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office took over the hosting of the WA legislation website from the State Law Publisher. The new web address for WA legislation is now  www.legislation.wa.gov.au .   The website functionality is unchanged, but it is now badged as Department of Justice/Parliamentary Counsel’s Office rather than Department of Premier and Cabinet/State Law Publisher.

The Queensland Judgments   website has just been launched by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for the State of Queensland and the Supreme Court Library of Queensland. It contains a complete set of the Queensland Reports , published in both its original format (PDF) and in a searchable online format. The website also contains a number of other valuable features: a complete set of recent unreported Supreme Court judgments (from 2002), which is being gradually expanded as the Library’s full print collection of unreported Supreme Court judgments is digitised. an appeal database, which provides current and historical data about appeals from judgments in the collection. a new UCPR service, which seeks to identify the leading judgments on civil procedure in Queensland. The website is currently being published in a beta version, to give users an opportunity to suggest improvements. I encourage all members to visit the new website and r...

The Victorian Legal Services Board & Commissioner has let us know that the Legal Profession Uniform Law Library (Australia) is now available on AustLII The library contains all Statutes, Rules, Regulations, Guidelines and Directions, and a growing body of DLRA determinations relating to the Legal Profession Uniform Law, together with all published decisions made under the Legal Profession Uniform Law since it commenced in NSW and Victoria on 1 July 2015. The creation of the online library ensures all material pertaining to the Legal Profession Uniform Law is now contained in the one place allowing for easier keyword searches for cases involving the Uniform Law. You can access the Legal Profession Uniform Law Library (Australia) on AustLII here .

Ever needed to find out what the ratification status of human rights treaties are? Take a look at this interactive map from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Great news for those who like WASC judgments from AustLII: The date range has been updated!

Today marks the start of Open Access Week . With that in mind, here's a blog post from Cornell University Law Schools VoxPopuLII Blog - home of the Legal Information Insitute [LII] which has been providing open access to American law since 1992. (Those familiar with our own AustLII would see the relationship here). The blog post, 25 for 25: A Librarian's Free Law Awakening  by Sarah Glassmeyer talks about her "free law awakening' and the process of law publishing, and how this challenged her "librarian perceptions of what really matters in publishing Free Law." It's a nice reminder of the value that free legal platforms do give us as law librarians (and practitioners). For instance, The public needs to be able to access legal information on the open 24/7 Internet in an easy to navigate, mobile friendly way, since most people – especially lower income individuals – access the web via mobile devices. .... Primary law needs to be published witho...

We've previously let you know that AustLII Beta was running, back in our February blog post . The new AustLII is now live! So go check it out and let us know what you think.

I know I sometimes turn to the Wayback Machine in my research; you might too. Hence I found this recent blog post about how Australian courts view use of the Wayback Machine very interesting. http://allensip.blogspot.com.au/2017/07/while-us-says-yes-to-wayback-machine.html

Copies of the Commonwealth Government Gazette from 1901 to 2012 are now available on the Federal Register of Legislation as searchable PDFs.

In case you missed it, because I know I did, the Law Times Reports are at HeinOnline in their Law Journal Library. This old law report series is hard to find in print and difficult to copy when found as they are usually bound in large volumes. The coverage at HeinOnline covers the full run of this report which was 1859-1947. Thanks to Sky for the tip.

It's time to get connected. Last Week, ALLA Ltd. launched ALLA Connect , a program to provide members across the nation an opportunity to share ideas and build networks. The first program will run from 1 February to 31 May 2017. By joining the program, you can connect in a variety of ways to discuss a range of topics that you are passionate about, including: Business & Industry Intelligence Careers & Career Development Collection Management Corporate Governance Current Awareness Ebooks & Everything 'e' Intranets & Information Design Knowledge Management Legal Industry Stakeholder Engagement Training and eLearning  ALLA Connect gives you an opportunity to connect with members in two ways: one-on-one : the project team will connect you with an ALLA member in another division who has similar interests to you. Throughout the progam, the team will send you and your connection 'discussion sparks' to help keep the conversation ...

Hi ALLA(WA) Members Natalie McDonald,  ALLA (WA) President Please see below for an update on the services and events of the ALLA(WA). Upcoming ALLA(WA) PD & Social Events The ALLA(WA) CPD Sub Committee have created a calendar of proposed upcoming events for the 2016/2017 period which have been available on the Calendar of Events page.  One event per month will be arranged (sometimes even two), with nothing scheduled over the December-January holiday period. A brown bag CPD session was held on 13th October where Mawghan Elverd, the recipient of the Wolters Kluwer CCH Conference Bursary, shared some of her highlights of the August 2016 ALLA Conference in Melbourne, Victoria.  All who attended came away with some valuable insights. We thank those who took time to provide feedback after this event. The End of Year Celebration will be held on Wednesday 30th November 2016.   A Save the Date has already been emailed to members and shared on our social medi...

In case you missed the announcement, copies of the  Commonwealth of Australia and Australian Government Gazettes from 1901 to 2012 are now online at the Federal Register of Legislation https://www.legislation.gov.au/Content/HistoricGazettes These historical gazettes are all in searchable PDF format. More recent Commonwealth Gazettes, from October 2012 onwards, can be found at this link https://www.legislation.gov.au/Browse/ByTitle/Gazettes/InForce/0/0/ These more modern gazettes are available as individual notices in a variety of formats. Thanks to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, in conjunction with National Library of Australia and the Australian Government Solicitor Group in the Attorney Generals Department, for making this possible.

Information below provided by the Department of the Attorney General: From 1 July 2016, the Law Library at the Supreme Court will close its doors and the Department of the Attorney General will provide library services to legal practitioners at the Law Library at the David Malcolm Justice Centre. Legal practitioners (and other persons doing research on behalf of legal practitioners) can access the Law Library by going to Level 23 of the David Malcolm Justice Centre, and will be given access to the Law Library (which is located on Level 2). The Law Library's opening hours will be 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday and services will include: - access to a browsing collection, with loans (other than loose leaf services) to take to court only; - reference desk services; - access to electronic databases at the Law Library (including LexisNexis, Westlaw and CCH) will be available from 25 July 2016; - photocopying and printing; and - document delivery. Fees will apply for photocopying...

In case you missed it, AustLII has recently added these two law reports to their online holdings:   Argus Law Reports 1895-1950 and Argus Law Reports, Current Notes 1896-1950 

If you have not yet seen it, you might be interested in signing the online petition in support of Trove. Details available via the link below https://www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/fund-trove-1