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CLE Papers as a Research Source
Papers presented at continuing legal information seminars are good research sources. They are prepared by recognized, often local experts in an area of law. They may offer a timely update on a topic. Best of all they are pretty easy to find. First, pick your jurisdiction. Then find a catalog source. Search and retrieve.
Alberta CLE material from our Legal Education Society of Alberta are catalogued by the fine folks at the Alberta Law Libraries. Each paper from a seminar is individually available by using a keyword search for a title word or writer name through their library catalogue.
Ted Tjaden’s website, a companion to his , has an excellent selection of links for
Is it safe to generalize that most law school library catalogues will have a copy of CLE’s?
You can search CLEBC’s course materials online at http://online.cle.bc.ca/SearchDefault.aspx to see what is available. However, you will need a subscription in order to see the full text of a paper.
Do the Law Societies require presenters to create a narrative of their presentations (ie an actual paper), or do they supply powerpoints? I *hate* powerpoint as a record of a session. Well designed ppt is not an effective archive.(rant, rant, rant)
You can search CLE content in Ontario via Access CLE at http://tinyurl.com/49ue7eq
Wendy – Our LESA organization asks for papers not powerpoints in their seminar materials. The rule is usually followed.
Susannah – thanks for the addition to the tip!
Karen – I think that courthouse or law society libraries often have CLE materials in their collections. I actually use the individual papers index as a reference point for our firm’s collection. We don’t have staff capacity to catalogue each paper, so we gratefully search the Alberta Law Libraries cataloge – find the seminar title the paper was in, and then see if it is something we own.
Thanks for all the comments!
It is interesting to note that in Québec, the series of conferences known as the “Développements récents” are available on the CAIJ website, in the Publications du Barreau section.
You can also search them in full-text via the JuriBistroTM CONCERTO search tool.