Welcome news from David Whelan of the Great Library – Law Society of Upper Canada:

You can now print and download articles older than 18 months free of charge from the Law Society’s CLE collection, powered by the Great Library.

The service – AccessCLE – has been 100% pay-per-view since its inception in 2007 and contains over 6,000 PDF articles going back to 2004.  The articles represent the individual presentations from CLE/CPD seminars put on by the Law Society.  Our partnership with the Law Society’s CPD team is ongoing and we continue to receive and add metadata to articles from

Most law firms have an orientation program for articling students.  I am certain that ‘legal research’ is part of the program – if not, my tip is to add it!

An look back at the conference site for last weekend’s Law and Society Association conference showed a Methods Cafe as part of the program.

Scholars experienced in using different research methods each sit in a large ballroom at different tables, which are prominently labeled with the method about which that expert is prepared to talk. The experts then act as a consultant to anyone who shows up to talk with

Today’s Tip is really about finding new sources of information as they appear.   The announcement yesterday in Alberta about the Alberta Open Data Portal is a good reminder that information may become available that is relevant to your legal research. 

A number of jurisdictions in Canada provide open data.  A handy list is available the datalibre.ca blog.…

Today’s Tip is a follow up to “”, read a book review.  There are excellent book reviews available in the Canadian Law Library Review, the journal fo the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (available to members of the association as well as through subscription).

Book reviews can also be found in blog posts. For example this post on the ILTA KM Blog:  Book Review–Martin White’s “Enterprise Search”. Hat tip to David Hobbie for the review.…

Despite discussions about alternative fee arrangements and the changing times for the business of law, many clients and law firms still deal with compensation for legal work based on the billable hour.  One thing that goes hand in hand with that are billable research hours, and the costs for services used that clients pay in disbursements.

Today’s tip is for the new summer law students and their articling peers: watch the clock.

Efficient gathering of information usually means less time overall spent answering a research question. Fast gathering usually starts with what an expert can tell you about an area …

This tip came from Christine Hiller and was shared with the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference in Montreal. In the Plenary today, Christine shared that there are eBook license templates and resources available! Check it it at OCUL .…

Sometimes the only way to answer a research question is by asking a bunch of people for their opinions.

An example: Canada Post is asking Canadians about the kind of postal service they will need in the future. An important question, especially for those of you who like getting books in the mail. This question is in response to a Conference Board of Canada report on the future of the postal service.  The Conference Board is an excellent place to look to see if someone has already answered your big picture type question.

I encourage you to give feedback …

A Government of Canada news release reminded me to remind you to watch for new sources of information.

The Governments of Canada and of Alberta Launch New Online Portal for Accessing Oil Sands Environmental Monitoring Data and Information

OTTAWA, Ont. – April 22, 2013 – Canada’s Environment Minister, the Honourable Peter Kent, and Alberta’s Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Minister, the Honourable Diana McQueen, today announced that access to federal and provincial environmental monitoring data on air, water, land and biodiversity in the oil sands is now available through an online data portal (www.JointOilSandsMonitoring.ca). The new portal represents the next

The Federal Courts in Canada have a pretty good website. They also have a very nice docket search tool. Note that this search tool, although it is linked from the Federal Court website, offers a radio button for searching the Federal Court of Appeal docket as well.

Hat Tip to the Courts Administration Service for setting me to rights on that. Thank you especially to the Registry Officer who took the time to locate my email address and send some followup information after providing most of the answer to my question by phone. Above and beyond the call …

Things get so busy in law that sometimes we get behind.  For instance, Research posts are supposed to appear on Wednesdays here at Slaw Tips.  We all know that notes, tasks, and to do lists help us keep on top of the things we need to do.  The same is true for legal research.

Today’s Tip is to use a detailed  ‘sources consulted’ list.  My personal preference is to put this list in the last section of a research memo.  A Sources Consulted list can take the form of a bibliography (the texts you visited) or it can be more.  …