Legal Research

Law Librarian Group Calls for Ending Publication of Law Reviews in Print Format

By Wendy Reynolds

From the Law Librarian Blog today.

Personally, I believe that the move toward digital law journals is inevitable. I equally believe that librarians and publishers have to work together to ensure that information is available to those who need it, when it’s needed, and supported by a sustainable business model. Starting with the law schools is, I think, a good move.

I like that the language of the Durham Statement includes the word “open” - as a librarian who serves the public, it does me no good to have restrictive licenses keeping my users away from the information they need. I think that many of the schools are starting to get this - look at the quality of the commentary in some of the law school blogs, for example (The Court springs immediately to mind).

I’d like to call on the Canadian law library community to review and consider supporting this initiative. I’d also love to see the functionality of CanLII extended to include secondary literature - either by scraping websites, or by functioning as a permanent repository for this material. I’d appreciate hearing from others on the desirability/feasibility of this scenario.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on February 24, 2009 (boomark / email).