Thursday, April 09, 2015

Will CALL Lower Student Membership Fees?

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries has had reduced membership fees for students for quite some time, offering the same 30% reduction that the Association gives its retired members. At the upcoming conference in Moncton, there will be a special resolution at the AGM to take those reductions further. Members will be voting to lower student dues to a nominal flat fee of $15.00, plus the appropriate taxes.

The Student SIG, Membership Committee, and the CALL Executive should all be commended for bringing such a simple change forward. Students are not only the base of future membership, but a group that often brings much more than their membership fees to the table. This is a group that (when tapped) offers volunteer time, energy and fresh ideas.

At $15, membership would effectively be free for students; with the nominal fee being just enough of a deterrent for students who might "join for the sake of joining." The student who is exploring his or her range of career possibilities, and has even the smallest interest in law librarianship, would see the financial barrier to entry as minimal.

This seems like a smart move. I hope it goes through.

Thursday, April 02, 2015

Newly Added Annotations in Quickscribe 2.0

For several years now, we've been posting a monthly summary of updated Quickscribe hardcopy manuals here on VLLB. Since Quickscribe's services are always evolving, we're going to change things up too.

From now on, we'll be bringing you a monthly summary of which legal experts have contributed annotations in Quickscribe 2.0, the company's online legislation service.

Here's a look at which BC laws and bills got new annotations within Quickscribe Online 2.0 in March:
  • Supreme Court Civil Rules (B.C. Reg. 168/2009) by Erik Magraken, MacIsaac & Company LLP
  • [2015 Bill 24] Societies Act, Society Act by Margaret Mason, Bull Housser & Tupper LLP 
  • Employment Standards Act by Daniel Sorensen, Sorensen Smith LLP
  • Health Care (Consent) and Care Facility (Admission) Act and the Health Professions Act by Guy Brown, Harper Grey LLP 
  • [2015 Bill 3] Building Act by Michael Hargreaves, Stewart McDannold Stuart LLP
  • WESA and the Supreme Court Civil Rules (B.C. Reg. 168/2009) by Stan Rule, Sabey Rule LLP
  • Family Law Act by John-Paul Boyd, Canadian Research Institute For Law And The Family
  • Strata Property Act  by Mary Brunton, Reed Pope Law Corporation
  • Property Law Act by Peter Roberts, Lawson Lundell LLP
Annotations are a subscriber benefit; if you'd like to try out Quickscribe 2.0, you can sign up for a free trial online. Or click on an expert's name in the list above for a bio and sample annotations.