Off The Shelf http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca Osgoode Hall Law School Library Blog Mon, 20 May 2013 08:17:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 Recent Acquisitions, May 13 – May 17, 2013 http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/recent-acquisitions-may-13-may-17-2013/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=recent-acquisitions-may-13-may-17-2013 http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/recent-acquisitions-may-13-may-17-2013/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 08:17:10 +0000 New Books Script http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/?p=1720 Continue reading →]]> 22 new acquisitions in Osgoode Hall Law School Library, including 13 from 2013:

]]> http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/recent-acquisitions-may-13-may-17-2013/feed/ 0 Summer viewing, Part 1 http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/summer-viewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=summer-viewing http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/summer-viewing/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 18:06:19 +0000 Stephen Spong http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/?p=1703 Continue reading →]]>

“Debbie, we’re going to need some law books. With pictures this time.”

Now that exams are done and the summer has started (never mind the hail last Sunday), it is an opportunity for a collective exhale and a chance to mentally re-calibrate before starting all over again in September (or before going off to bar ads and articling). Following in the footsteps of Sandra Geddes’s blog post from a few weeks ago on summer reading, I thought I would include some occasional suggestions for summer viewing with a legal bend (and I should put the emphasis on bend). This week I’ll start with something truly bizarre, and hopefully the tenor will only improve from here on out.

There is a reason that awards-pandering “challenging” movies are typically released in the fall, while escapist “blockbusters” are reserved for the summer – the summer is a time of escapism and relaxation, while the rest of the year tends to be of the serious, furrowed-brow nature, when things need to get done. With that in mind, I’ll try to err on the side of escapism. Brain cramp while trying to relax is no fun at all.

Although it is not a movie, but rather a television show, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law is easily one of the silliest and most irreverent takes on the law. Although it has long since ended, the series was part of the Adult Swim programming on the Cartoon Network and featured such talent as a pre-Colbert Report Stephen Colbert. The premise is simple and brilliant – what happens to Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters after their respective series end? In the case of third-rate character Birdman, he becomes a barely-functioning lawyer. The show makes full use of the Hanna-Barbera license, with such premises as Fred Flintstone as a Tony Soprano-like mob boss, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo getting busted for marijuana possession, and Boo-Boo Bear as a terrorist known as the Unabooboo. Each episode is a digestible fifteen minutes, and fun in the vacantly vacuous way that seems to work best in the summer months.

Check out the opening scene from the episode where Harvey Birdman defends Shaggy and Scooby-Doo here.

Have a fantastic holiday weekend everybody!

]]> http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/summer-viewing/feed/ 0 Quicklaw and LexisNexis Academic refresher for RAs on May 31 http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/quicklaw-and-lexisnexis-academic-refresher-for-ras-on-may-31/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=quicklaw-and-lexisnexis-academic-refresher-for-ras-on-may-31 http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/quicklaw-and-lexisnexis-academic-refresher-for-ras-on-may-31/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 17:38:41 +0000 Sharona Brookman http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/?p=1712 Continue reading →]]> The Law Library is pleased to offer a Quicklaw and LexisNexisAcademic refresher session for Research Assistants on Friday May 31, from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon in Room 2003. Quicklaw training will be from 10:00 am to 11:00 am, followed by LexisNexis Academic training from 11:00 am to 12:00 noon. To reserve a spot please email library@osgoode.yorku.ca. with “Quicklaw and LexisNexis Academic refresher” in the subject line.

]]> http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/quicklaw-and-lexisnexis-academic-refresher-for-ras-on-may-31/feed/ 0 Research Assistants Summer Session presentations now available http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/research-assistants-summer-session-presentations-now-available/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=research-assistants-summer-session-presentations-now-available http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/research-assistants-summer-session-presentations-now-available/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 17:03:16 +0000 Sharona Brookman http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/?p=1696 Continue reading →]]> The presentations from the Research Assistants Summer Session on May 9 have now been posted on the Research Guides page. (Scroll down to Presentations). The presentations cover primary resources, secondary resources and Zotero, Evernote and the art of managing time and resources for research.

]]> http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/research-assistants-summer-session-presentations-now-available/feed/ 0 Recent Acquisitions, May 6 – May 10, 2013 http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/recent-acquisitions-may-6-may-10-2013/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=recent-acquisitions-may-6-may-10-2013 http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/recent-acquisitions-may-6-may-10-2013/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 08:01:59 +0000 New Books Script http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/?p=1694 Continue reading →]]> 19 new acquisitions in Osgoode Hall Law School Library, including 5 from 2013:

]]> http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/recent-acquisitions-may-6-may-10-2013/feed/ 0 Will the Public Lose Access to Essential Legal Documents? http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/will-the-public-lose-access-to-essential-legal-documents/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=will-the-public-lose-access-to-essential-legal-documents http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/will-the-public-lose-access-to-essential-legal-documents/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 19:35:41 +0000 F. Tim Knight http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/?p=1685 Continue reading →]]> “When people say everything’s online,” says Jerry Dupont of the Law Library Microform Consortium [LLMC], “they’re woefully uninformed.”

Yes, it might seem like we have access to all the legal information we might ever need but Jerry Dupont’s observation still rings true.  And while ongoing digitization efforts of law and other libraries continue to benefit the legal research community, the progress of these initiatives has been hampered by the current economic climate.

“Across the country, law libraries are trying to adapt to the digital revolution and preserve historic and precedential documents.  But budget cuts have hit hard at academic law libraries, which historically have hosted some of the most robust legal collections.  And the pressures are creating concerns that the public will lose access to essential legal documents.”

In a recent article published by the American Bar Association, Hollee Schwartz Temple, director of the legal research and writing program at West Virginia University College of Law,  asks:  “Are digitization and budget cuts compromising history?”  This article provides a nice overview of some the issues and potential threats that affect long-term access and preservation to our digital legal resources.

As Schwartz Temple reports evidence of this slow down was found in a recent American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) survey.  The survey found that “nearly 60 percent of … respondents have been making do with less for the past several years.”

“Even the venerable Law Library of Congress, home to the world’s largest legal collection, has felt the impact.  According to Law Librarian of Congress David Mao, budget woes have affected the library’s ability to acquire materials, preserve them and make them readily available.”

The ABA’s Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress contributed to the development of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (ULEMA) U.S. legislation that aims to “harmonize standards for acceptance of electronic materials across jurisdictional boundaries, and to help lawyers feel confident that the digital material they rely upon is current.”

The chair of this Standing Committee, Liz Medaglia, asks:  “With the increasing number of materials that are born digital and never get into hard copy, how do you make sure that what you have is accurate, current and preserved?”  It’s hoped that legislation like ULEMA will help foster long-term preservation and provide ways to ensure available information is authoritative.

Regardless of the stability of law library budgets issues surrounding access and preservation of digital legal materials continues to gain importance.  The LLMC has made great contributions in this area but they are just one piece in the larger and increasingly complex legal resource puzzle and, as Dupont says, they are not “equipped to digitize the entirety of primary American legal authority immediately.”

While LLMC (who have also included some Canadian legal resources) and other organizations like them should be loudly applauded a national strategy on digital preservation is needed to deal with these issues here in Canada.  Louis Mirando, Chief Law Librarian at the Osgoode Hall Law School Library, introduced a proposal for a special interest group on digital preservation and access at the recent annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries. This may be a valuable first step toward coordinating efforts in this country.

]]> http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/will-the-public-lose-access-to-essential-legal-documents/feed/ 0 Recent Acquisitions, April 29 – May 3, 2013 http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/recent-acquisitions-april-29-may-3-2013/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=recent-acquisitions-april-29-may-3-2013 http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/2013/05/recent-acquisitions-april-29-may-3-2013/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 08:17:48 +0000 New Books Script http://libblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/?p=1679 Continue reading →]]> 6 new acquisitions in Osgoode Hall Law School Library, including 2 from 2013:

  • K 1401 A9125 2011

    International intellectual property in an integrated world economy / Frederick M. Abbott, Thomas Cottier, Francis Gurry.

    New York : Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2011

    xxxvi, 824 p. ; 26 cm.

  • Aviation liability law
    Dempsey, Paul Stephen.

    K 4122 D46 2013

    Aviation liability law / Paul S. Dempsey.

    Markham, Ont. : LexisNexis, 2013

    xc, 892 p. ; 24 cm. + 1 CD-ROM (4 3/4 in)

  • Understanding section 55 and butterfly reorganizations
    CCH Canadian Limited.

    KF 6499 ZA2 S557 2010

    Understanding section 55 and butterfly reorganizations / editor-in-chief, Rick McLean ; contributing KPMG editors, Gregory Bell … [et al.] ; KPMG editor, Joseph Petrie.

    Toronto : CCH Canadian Limited, 2010

    xviii, 412 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

  • KF 9227 I6 P83 2011

    Public opinion and the penalty for murder : report of the Homicide Review Advisory Group on the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for murder.

    Hook, Hampshire, U.K. : Produced for the Homicide Review Advisory Group (HomRAG) by Waterside Press, 2011

    iii, 28 p. ; 30 cm.

  • KJV 115 V63 2011

    Vocabulaire juridique / publié sous la direction de Gérard Cornu.

    Paris : Presses universitaires de France, 2011

    xxx, 1095 p. ; 20 cm.

  • International commercial arbitration in Asia
    Ali, Shahla F.

    KM 500 I568 2013

    International commercial arbitration in Asia / Shahla F. Ali, Tom Ginsburg, editors.

    Huntington, N.Y. : Juris, 2013

    xlvi, 634 p. ; 24 cm.

      • Some books have cover images provided by Google.
      All other data © Osgoode Hall Law School.
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