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Australian Law Librarian Vol 19 No. 4 2011 ALLJ Vol.19 No.4.indd 1 24/11/11 12:57:26 PM Australian Law Libarian Published on behalf of the Australian Law Librarians’ Association and printed and distributed compliments of Thomson Reuters The Australian Law Librarian is the official journal Subscriptions of the Australian Law Librarians’ Association. It Australian Law Librarian (ISSN 1039-6616) is contains articles of interest to those working within published quarterly in March, June, September the field of legal librarianship and publishing and December. The subscription price includes fields. It also provides a vehicle for information delivery. sharing amongst divisions of the ALLA as well as serving as a forum for discussion of issues related Subscribers may send orders directly to the Journal to legal publishing. or use a subscription agent. Notes for Contributors Current subscriptions rates are: The Journal welcomes the contribution of articles, book reviews and notes. Acceptance and $A115.00 within Australia & New Zealand. publication of contributions is at the discretion $A130.00 Overseas Airmail. of the Editorial Board. More information on $A30.00 for individual and back issues. contributing to the Journal, as well as the Editorial Prices include GST. Policy, is available at <http://www.alla.asn.au/allj/ allcontributors>. For existing subscribers renewals are sent out in December each year and the 2012 Subscription Articles should generally be 1500 to 3000 words Form is available on the ALLA website. in length, but consideration will be given to longer and shorter articles that deal with issues relevant Copying to the practice of law librarianship. Book reviews Australian Law Librarian is a Publisher Member should be 700-800 words. of the Copyright Agency Limited. From 2011 the Journal will be participating in CALdirect which All materials should be submitted by email, will mean that eligible contributors will receive preferably in Word format. Contributors should any individual agreed payment shares directly follow the format of the current journal. The from CAL. Style Guide used for ALL is the Australian Guide to Legal Citation which is available online at <http://mulr.law.unimelb.edu.au/files/aglcdl.pdf>. Contacting the Journal If possible submissions should be formatted in Address all correspondence and make cheques accordance with AGLC, and citations should be (in Australian dollars) payable to: in the form of footnotes. Australian Law Librarian Deadlines PO Box 4523 Articles: Bathurst St Post Office HOBART 7000 Vol. 20 No.1, 1 January 2012 Australia Vol. 20 No.2, 1 April 2012 Vol. 20, No.3, 1 July 2012 Email contacts: Vol. 20, No.4, 1 October 2012 Editor: [email protected] Business Manager: [email protected] Columns: Vol. 20 No.1, 15 January 2012 Vol. 20 No.2, 15 April 2012 Vol. 20, No.3, 15 July 2012 Vol. 20, No.4, 15 October 2012 2007 Subscriptions ii Australian Law Librarian. Vol 19 No. 4 2011. ALLJ Vol.19 No.4.indd 2 24/11/11 12:57:27 PM Contents Editorial 237 National President’s Column 240 Awards 242 Articles The National Library of Australia: Some Strategic Questions and Context Anne-Marie Schwirtlich 244 Free as in Beer and Free as in Speech: Public Sector Information after 450 Days of Open Government John Sheridan 251 Freedom of Information: A Government Perspective Dr James Popple 256 Leading the Way to Learning and Content – An Online Law Tutorial Julie Cartwright 265 A Century of Information and the Challenge to Maintain Relevance Daemoni Bishop 271 A Winning Conference All Round Kristel Petrou 278 Columns Letter from Oxford Ruth Bird 282 Developments in Canadian Law and Law Libraries Nancy McCormack 285 Developments in US Law Libraries Anne L Abramson 288 New Zealand News Catherine Frew 296 Pacific News Karyn Gladwish, Laura Davern & Kym Freriks 297 State News Alison Jones 299 Australian Law Librarian. Vol 19 No. 4 2011. iii ALLJ Vol.19 No.4.indd 3 24/11/11 12:57:27 PM ALLJ Vol.19 No.4.indd 4 24/11/11 12:57:27 PM Editorial Dorothy Shea, Supreme Court of Tasmania In the words of Stevie Smith, many individuals data but will our brains have the capacity to and organisations are “not waving, but drowning”1 process it and come to meaningful decisions. in the oceans of information that threaten to swamp us in the 21st century. Whether it be Technology will certainly be a powerful tool in the cyber currents of emails, texts, SMS, RSS, the information society but it is well to remember blogs and online discussion groups or the hidden that is what it is – a tool, and it will be institu- shoals of reports, books, newspapers and journals, tions such as libraries that will have the capacity to in electronic and print format, it is becoming play a significant role in using these tools to clear increasingly difficult just to keep afloat, never pathways through the information wilderness, mind navigating our way through to a desired erecting signposts to guide and danger signs to destination. warn, and maintaining physical spaces for people that act as safe havens. And it is not just the general The CSIRO, in its draft report, Our future population that needs such spaces; gatherings world 2 identifies five global megatrends that may of law librarians provide great opportunities for redefine the way people live: discussions on how we are charting and mapping our own information patches as was demonstrated 1. More from Less: A World of Limited at the recent conference in Canberra. Resources; 2. A Personal Touch: Personalisation of One of the great things, for me, about attending Services; library conferences is that you get to pop your 3. On the Move: Urbanisation and head up from the protection of the trenches and Increased Mobility; see what is going on in the world outside. The 4. Divergent Demographics: Older, Hungry experience can range from the terrifying, with and More Demanding; and barrages of opinions being fired from all direc- 5. iWorld: Digital and Natural Convergence. tions, to the delightful when you come across something as wonderful as when Mole emerges In Megatrend 2, Personalisation of Services, it from his burrow to roll in the warm grass of the identifies information overload as contributing meadow on a spring morning. to “significant time losses associated with search- ing and processing irrelevant information”3 and While I don’t tweet, blog or have a Facebook predicts that this megatrend will lead to a strong account, use a mobile phone to make phone demand for technologies, such as memory tools, calls and can’t go past a second hand bookshop that will help people deal with the overwhelming without being drawn inside by some mysterious amount of data they need to remember. Sounds magnetic force, I found the papers at the recent a bit scary! Memory devices may be able to store ALLA Conference in Canberra to be thoroughly the ever increasing amount of information and absorbing. At one end there were the high tech 1 Title of a poem by Stevie Smith published in 1957. 2 S Hajkowicz, & J Moody, Our future world: An analysis of global trends, shocks and scenarios (CSIRO, 2010). 3 Ibid 7. Australian Law Librarian. Vol 19 No. 4 2011. 237 ALLJ Vol.19 No.4.indd 237 24/11/11 12:57:27 PM Editorial presentations dealing with web sites and mobile day event. John Sheridan from the Australian phone apps, in the middle ground some excel- Government Information Management Office lent papers on a variety of information resources, outlined the Commonwealth Government’s and at the other end the historical treasures such commitment to open government through the as newspapers on Trove and opinions of the publication of government information while Commonwealth Solicitor General. We are fortu- Dr James Popple, the Information Commissioner, nate to be able to publish three conference papers provided a very thorough discussion on the new in this issue of the Journal and hope to have more Freedom of Information policies. One could be in the first issue for 2012. forgiven for thinking that this subject might have been somewhat to the right of “dry” but with The Keynote Address for the Conference was both speakers having such obvious enthusiasm delivered by the Director-General of the National and commitment to the cause of making govern- Library, Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, who looked at ment information more freely available, delegates the context within which the National Library responded with considerable enthusiasm at the operates and its strategic directions for 2012- conclusion of these two presentations. The finale, 2014, concluding that “We must initiate, we with Jack Waterword AC, a well known Canberra must shape and we must continue to play a journalist, recounting his early adventures in the vital role in the democratisation of information, quest of FOI material, had many close to rolling the creation of knowledge and the wellbeing of in the aisles with laughter. Australians today and in the future.” As always the subject of legal research skills Having recently read Roxanne Missingham’s provoked considerable comment and discussion New Norcia Library Lecture, “How many roads in the final session of the Conference. Academic must a library walk down”,4 I could not help law librarians throughout Australia put consider- but reflect on the positive attitudes of these two able effort, thought and ingenuity into teaching library leaders about the future of libraries in legal research skills to their students. When these Australia, and their belief that despite the pres- students emerge from the academic environment sures of changing user profiles and behaviour, a into the real world of corporate, government, bleak financial climate and a bewildering proces- court and other specialist legal libraries, it can sion of new technologies, libraries will continue sometimes appear that, following graduation, to reshape their services to meet the needs of this part of their knowledge base has been existing and potential users.