Presentations Now Posted

A Proceedings page has now been added, and presentation slides plus handouts (all in PDF format) have been posted for those we currently have on hand.  More will be added as we receive them.  We are still working on loading the audio files, but didn’t want to hold up the other content for you.

 Go to:  Proceedings

Cheers
Connie

Perspective from the other side

As Connie has unwisely given me carte blanche in my blog postings, and as probably the sole Australian attendee at Libraries without Borders I’m going to have to be forgiven in advance for my distinctive perspective on the program and papers I’ve attended. As a research librarian for government lawyers, working within both a federalist and constitutional monarchist framework, as my Canadian colleagues also do, the papers which have interested me most are those which particularly illuminate our differences. In light of this I spent a very productive morning at the two Researching Canadian law sessions. Beatrice Tice, Bora Laskin Library’s Chief Librarian, gave an impressively detailed overview of the Canadian judicial process. While some processes are very familiar to me (Canadian lawyers, like their Australian and unlike their US counterparts, look all over the common law world for persuasive argument) others seemed foreign and strange (Canadian lawyers, unlike their Australian counterparts, do not distinguish between a hierarchy of law reporting). While we in Australia are well served by two good (albeit out of date) legal encycoplaedias as well as the various dense and valuable editions of the Australian Digest, Canada is only now being bestowed with its own Halsburys!

One thing we both share is having the global LexisNexis platform foisted upon us, with its inappropriate terminology and mysteriously inaccessible databases. I understand in Australia that such has been the poor reception of this product that lawyer usage has dropped away noticeably. One thing the commercial sellers of these databases continue to overlook is that a critical mass of freely available case law is now being provided by courts everywhere. My feeling is that having good annotators and good looseleaf services (online) is probably all anyone will need in a few more years. Oh, and good librarians who know how to use everything successfully.

Beatrice was succeeded later in the morning by her Bora Laskin colleague Sooin Kim who, alongside Jeanette Bosschart, led us through the intricacies of the legislative process. The Canadian manner of passing its statutes and regulations bears only a nodding resemblance to the processes in my own jurisdiction. My US colleagues seemed more au fait with this discussion, but I had so much to learn that I failed to keep up with my note taking, and can only say that I now understand why when I’m called upon to penetrate the thickets of provincial law in Canada, I often retreat in disarray. But now I have some email addresses! Statutory interpretation is obviously different in Canada from the way it is approached in Australia. And that’s all I plan to say on that matter, except that I was disappointed not to be treated to a similar overview of the US court and legislative processes.

The other paper which I found completely absorbing was Professor Lorraine Weinrib’s comparative look at the Constitutions of both Canada and the US. Her talk was so rich in historical and legal context, so informed by the view she obtained as a one-time lawyer for the Crown, and so thoughtful in its summary of the effects of each constitutional approach on the body politic and on the governed, that I couldn’t do it justice in one paragraph here. I have written a more extensive, and as yet unposted overview for my own blog so anyone wanting to read that please let me know and I’ll email you the link.

 

[Admin note:  posted by Barbara Flowers]

Coming Soon: Survey for Delegates!

Today I drafted a survey for all delegates to help us plan out rooms and seating for the various concurrent sessions during the conference.   The other planners are going to work through it to ensure it makes sense, and then I hope to send that out mid-week.  Keep your eyes peeled! 

 If I can co-ordinate it, Canadian delegates should also be receiving your confirmation receipts with it.  U.S. delegates have already received receipts; if you haven’t received yours, please contact U.S. registrant James Gernert jgernert@yahoo.com.

Cheers!
Connie

Connie Crosby
Canadian Co-chair
crosbyc@weirfoulds.com  
(416) 947-5057

Isn’t it convenient when real life illustrates a topic?

I doubt that it’s news to the Canadians in the audience, but for our American cousins,  Canada Law Book announced that it intends to remove its content from LexisNexis Quicklaw with the expiry of its license agreement on March 31, 2008, with the aim of expanding its own suite of online offerings. The implications of this decision are unclear at this moment - by next spring, we’ll have a better sense of what this means for libraries.

The announcement serves to highlight the timeliness of the Friday morning plenary, Pipe Dream to Pipeline : The Future of Legal Information and Law Publishing.  For me, this session has gone from a “nice to have” to one of the most important items on the program. Does the Canada Law Book announcement presage a fundamental shift in the marketplace, or is it a one-off? The legal marketplace seems to segmenting into mega-firms and boutiques - are we seeing the same model emerge in publishing? 

 Join our panel of legal publishing insiders as we explore their opportunities and challenges. (I’ve been privately speculating about the future of the case law report, with the rise of the “LII” - Legal Information Institute).

 Wendy

Session summary: Cross-border White Collar Crime

Crime - even white collar crime - recognizes no borders and recent high profile cases like Martha Stewart, and Conrad Black make it appear to be an increasing problem in today’s international financial markets and industry. Brian H. Greenspan is Canada’s pre-eminent white collar criminal lawyer, who frequently deals with cross border issues, and he will be speaking at NE2007on October 20th courtesy of TALL. Mr. Greenspan has defended CEOs, hockey players, directors and politicians on such charges as money-laundering, fraud, and “tipping” among other things. He was recently profiled with his brother Eddie Greenspan, also a criminal lawyer, who most recently defended Conrad Black in Chicago, in a Toronto Life article entitled “Criminal Minds.”  The article quotes Justice John Sopinka of the Supreme Court of Canada: “Hire Brian Greenspan…He’s the best lawyer who ever appeared before me.”Mr. Greenspan was also recently profiled by the Financial Post as a top white collar criminal defence specialist. In the article “White-collar clients rely on specialists,” Mr. Greenspan commented on the differences and similarities of American vs. Canadian justice systems and speculated on “one high-profile American defendant would have been better off in the Canadian system. Martha Stewart would have been tried in Canada by a judge alone and she would almost certainly have testified in her own defence. Most Canadian lawyers believe she would have been acquitted. She certainly couldn’t have done any worse.”

The Toronto Association of Law Libraries is sponsoring session L-2 Cross-border White Collar Crime with Brian Greenspan.  Check the program for time and date.

Posted on behalf of Erica Anderson, Toronto Association of Law Libraries.

Programs for managers

The summer holidays are drawing to a close. With the return of students to school, and workers to offices comes the realization that budget season is just around the corner. We have several excellent programs lined up to help make that process easier (okay, less frustrating?).

Reveille! Roll Call! : Communicating our value to management. Panellists Stephen Lastres and Donna Purvis join moderator Gale Lynn-Nelson to discuss the growing demand to “run the library like a business”, and provide practical tips in quantifying and communicating the library’s value proposition.

Negotiating Contracts : Tips, Tricks & Tools.  Joanie Oliver takes us through the contract negotiation, identifying opportunities for cost reduction, and offering strategic advice.

Competitive Intelligence on a Shoestring. Increasingly, libraries are involved in gathering information on existing and potential clients, finding out about emerging issues/opportunities, and keeping an eye on the legal marketplace. Sabrina Pacifici helps you accomplish this highly valued service with a minimum of expense.  Talk about a value proposition!

Human resources represent a significant part of any library’s bottom line. The session Here Today, Gone Tomorrow : Hiring, Retaining & Dismissing Information Professionals will explore the “soft skills” required to keep your team a smoothly-functioning unit.

See the entire preliminary schedule.  Not yet registered? The forms are available here.

Can we throw away the books yet?

Genie Tyburski used the title above in a recent article on The Virtual Chase. I’m not going to restate the questions she raises and the excellent points she makes in the article. She’s right, though — we’re in an odd transition period, when primary source of information (books) is out of sync with the prevailing approach to research (online). While the information universe is shifting toward the virtual library, the need persists for print resources AND for those who know how to use them.

 The program at NE2007 has many sessions which can help you become more knowledgeable about both information “universes”.  There are sessions on researching U.S and Canadian law. Another session features free, web-based sources of international law.

The Friday morning plenary, Pipe dream to pipeline, will address directly many of the issues and observations offered by Ms. Tyburski. A distinguished panel of legal publishers will discuss the future of legal publishing - how will the delivery of information change in the short term? In the next fifteen years? Don’t miss this one!

Wendy

Ignatieff on Iraq

See Michael Ignatieff’s article on the war, published this past weekend in the New York Times magazine.

I think that one of the most interesting themes of the article is the discussion of the academic’s perception vs the politican’s view of the world.  A quote:

I’ve learned that good judgment in politics looks different from good judgment in intellectual life. Among intellectuals, judgment is about generalizing and interpreting particular facts as instances of some big idea. In politics, everything is what it is and not another thing. Specifics matter more than generalities. Theory gets in the way.

I know a few other academics who have moved into the “trenches” of their professions. Wouldn’t it be a great after-dinner conversation to have two or three people who have moved from academe into (what most would consider) “the real world”, and see how their perceptions changed?

 BTW - Michael Valpy of the Globe and Mail wrote an article on the Ignatieff piece, including an interview with Ignatieff.

 Wendy Reynolds

Keynote announcement

We’re thrilled to announce that Michael Ignatieff has agreed to present the keynote address on Friday morning (October 19).

Most recently known as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Ignatieff has enjoyed a wide-ranging career. His accomplishments are enough to fill several lifetimes - an acclaimed author of fiction and non-fiction, journalist, broadcaster, historian, observer/commentator on international politics - the list is dizzying.

Trained as an historian, his writing ranges from a history of the English prison system (Just a Measure of Pain, published in 197 to the controversial Lesser Evil : Political Ethics in an Age of Terror (2004), wherein he tries to reconcile western democratic principles with the impulse to ruthlessness in a post 9/11 world. He has been nominated for the Booker Prize for his fiction, and has won the Governor-General’s award for The Russian Album, a recounting of his family’s life in the final days of Czarist Russia, and their subsequent journey to Canada.

Before his 2005 return to Canada, he had spent much of his career in the United Kingdom and the U.S., leaving the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy at Harvard to return to Toronto and take up career in federal politics.  

The Globe and Mail’s Michael Valpy wrote an intensely personal profile of the then-candidate for the leadership of the federal Liberals. 

Watch this space for additional program information, including more details on the keynote!

I’m Getting Really Pumped!!

Hi everyone! It has been a while since I have posted so wanted to update you.

Some of our planning group has been down in New Orleans at the AALL conference. Word is they are talking to lots of people, and enthusiasm has been building!

We have been receiving registrations and I am very delighted to see them rolling in. I have also been receiving questions from people. One big question is when we will have the conference schedule posted. It is in rough draft form, but the Program and Social committees have been working hard the last few weeks to get that together, and we are getting close. I’m probably the bottleneck currently in that process, so will get a move on it.

Don’t forget to get your early bird registration in to us by July 31st!!  If you are registering, please note we have made the closing banquet ticket as a separate cost, not included in the main registration. We did this both to keep the conference registration price down for those not interested in the social aspect, and also administratively to make it easier for us to get tickets out for those who need more than one ticket. Please remember to include this if you want to join us for the closing dinner–I hope you will!!

While we do have a stellar educational program lined up, I really think the biggest benefit of this meeting will be the opportunity to meet with colleagues. For those in the U.S., you will find this to be on a more “human” scale than AALL. For those in Canada, you will find lots of new faces and opportunities to learn.

Please–if you have any questions please feel free to email me at conniecrosby@gmail.com. I’m happy to answer your questions any clarify anything that might be fuzzy.

Cheers!
Connie

Connie Crosby
NE2007 Co-Chair
Toronto, ON