Researching federal legislation can be fascinating particularly historical legislation. The Canadian spirit of the times can gleaned from the content and context of our legislation. As frustrated ambivalent challenged as this might make you feel when reading the current debates, thankfully available on the wonderful LEGISinfo site, looking at debates from the past is both interesting and potentially useful for legal research.

This fall, the Library of Parliament, in collaboration with Canadiana.org, launched its Historical Debates of the Parliament of Canada digital portal.

The portal makes the debates of the House of Commons and the Senate for the …

Public computers in libraries, Internet cafes, airports, and copy shops are an extreme security risk. While you can take steps to reduce these risks, it is still very dangerous to access sensitive personal or client information on them. Start with the assumption that most public computers will have malware on them and let this govern your activities accordingly. The following steps can reduce some of the risks associated with public computers:

• Try to turn on the “private browsing” feature.
• Watch for over-the-shoulder thieves who may be peeking as you enter sensitive passwords to collect your information.
• Uncheck or disable the

“ This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure. ”

To continue our quest to inbox zero, here are further tips to attaining Maslow’s self-actualization by reaching the seemingly stratospheric and elusive high-ground of Inbox Zero:

• Make the most of your time: OK, so you are standing in a lineup at the checkstand (typical with Christmas shopping at this time of year).  Open your Smartphone and start zapping emails…
• Get creative with Labels.  Create folders with names that are relevant to you such as “travel”  or “family” or

The people who know most about what features a product has are the people who made it.

Despite our constant practice using the information tools that we subscribe to and use, the library team members at my firm take opportunities to attend training sessions offered by our vendor and industry partners.  Whether it is a YouTube video, a webinar, a demo at a conference, or a visit to an exhibit hall booth, there is always something new to take in.

Today’s Tip applies to research tools, but equally to any software. Hat Tip to my document management provider, Worldox, …

I have given this tip before, but it is worth giving again (thanks to the nudge in this LifeHacker post): Two-factor authentication is one of the best things you can do to make sure your online accounts are more secure and don’t get hacked. More and more popular services are offering it, including: Facebook, LinkedIn, Google/Gmail, BlackBerry, Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon web services, PayPal, Dropbox, Hootsuite, Twitter, Evernote, WordPress and LastPass.
Two-factor authentication is a feature that asks for more than just your password. It requires both something you know (a password) and something you have (for example, your …

For lawyers interested in practice-building, there are few methods more proven than law blogging (or blawging, if you prefer) and getting social via social media online.

As I wrote in a recent paper, Social Media, A Vital Tool for the Modern Family Law Practice, delivered at an Ontario Bar Association CPD programme for family law lawyers last month:

Increasingly, the sophisticated shopper for legal services is looking online for the legal professionals he or she will hire. A strong social media footprint will help these shoppers to find you. Quality content, branded and delivered authentically and professionally, will help

Today’s Tip is a story: I was asked to find what a particular web-available document would have read in the early 2000s.  This is a pretty typical request for a law librarian. The general strategy:

• Is the current version on a website? (yes)
• Is the point in time version archived on that site? (no)
• Plug the site into Internet Archive and locate.

Which works unless the domain for the website has changed.  If it has, where do you find the previous website address?  Here are a few tips:

• If it is a business or organization that publishes something, look in

Activating a password-protected screensaver is a simple and very effective way to prevent an unauthorized person from rifling through the data on a computer or other device that’s been inadvertently left on or lost. All versions of Windows and Apple operating systems allow you to add a password to a screensaver. Remember to log out of any applications containing sensitive data and lock your screen when you leave your desk, or set a fairly short wait time on your screensaver so that it locks automatically if you step away. BlackBerry, Android, iOS and Windows mobile devices also have an automatic …

Where do all these email alerts, newsletters, updates, sales pitches and unrequested announcements come from?

Inspired by my co-Tipster David Bilinsky’s recent posts on the elusive quest for Inbox Zero, I’ve been in a mood to purge all those unwanted or redundant messages that clutter up  my own, perpetual Inbox Five Hundred.  

In the last few days alone, I’ve hit unsubscribe and said goodbye forever to emails from REM, Quora, Legendary Motor Cars, Carswell (I know, sacrilege), ManChef, Houzz, Cater Trends, Joel from Buffer, Go Daddy, Facebook, CPD On Time, Digg, NY Times, York University, LawCrossing, Sky Auction and …

Thanks to an intriguing post at Bob Ambrogi’s LawSites blog today’s tip is to check out CourtListener for access to US decisions.

CourtListener is a core project of the Free Law Project, a non-profit with the lofty and laudable goals of providing free, public, and permanent access to primary legal materials and to develop, implement, and provide public access to technologies useful for legal research (among other things),

CourtListener has a clean, easy interface, clear messaging on coverage, and the ability to filter by percedential decisions, which they have over 2.2 million of.  Check it out.

CourtListener has created …