Professional Development for LiRN Network

LiRN Professional Development Memo

LiRN encourages professional development for staff in the county and district law library network and acknowledges that continuing professional development and training contributes to personal job satisfaction, workplace productivity, and client service.

This Memorandum on Professional Development and Bursaries for Library Staff provides direction on various professional development opportunities including conferences and for continuing education courses and library technician programs.

Please note that costs for professional development conferences, courses, and programs (other than the Learn with LiRN annual conference) should be included in the library’s annual budget. In the rare cases that funding was not requested as part of the library budget, a special application for a bursary may be made.

Reporting Back to the Network

Staff are expected to report back to LiRN after attending any funded professional development conferences, courses, and programs with a summary of the information gained, together with any ideas they may have as to how the information may be used to benefit the network. Attendees may be requested to present their new knowledge and ideas at LiRN’s annual PD Learnings Roundtable.

Law Libraries and Legal Research Course

LIBRLT405 – Law Libraries And Legal Research is a course taught by Brenda Lauritzen (Carleton) at Mohawk College and may be of interest to library staff.

Course Description

Explore the Canadian and Ontario legal systems, with emphasis on publications, research and the basics of running a law library. Learn to use primary and secondary legal materials in print and electronic format. Examine acquisitions, cataloguing and collection development in a law library setting. Access to a law library is recommended.
This online course is an elective course in Mohawk College’s Library and Information Technician Program, but it can also be taken as a standalone course for professional development.
It’s an asynchronous online course so people do it on their own schedule, usually a couple hours per week.
Tuition is $362.51 (2024 rate).  The course usually starts mid-January to mid-April.  Please include this in your budget for the upcoming year if you wish to attend.
Register at this link or contact [email protected] for more information.

Learn with LiRN Curriculum

LiRN develops an annual Curriculum of free professional development programs organized into 4 learning paths: Electronic Resource Training, Substantive Law, Library Skills, and Soft Skills.   Each session is held via Zoom and usually recorded and posted to our private Learn with LiRN YouTube channel, as well as any hand-outs provided.  They are posted to our Wiki depending upon their topic.    Although the recordings are usually available, we encourage you to attend in case you have any questions.   LiRN hosts a couple of sessions conducted by Telus/LifeWorks.  Those sessions are not allowed to be recorded due to copyright reasons by the presenters so you must attend those sessions in person if you wish to benefit from them.

Learn with LiRN YouTube Channel

LiRN records our monthly Curriculum sessions for Library staff to review after a session has occurred.  They are posted to our private Learn with LiRN YouTube channel.

Note:  Sessions that are provided by Telus Health are not recorded due to copyright reasons.

Learn with LiRN Annual Conference

Learn with LiRN is held annually as an opportunity for courthouse library staff across Ontario to participate in several professional development sessions, interact with legal vendors who wish to showcase their products & answer questions, as well as networking with your colleagues across Ontario. Our sessions are designed to educate library staff and share best practices across the network. PD sessions are curated based upon areas of interest expressed by library staff as well as a chance for in-person updates from the LiRN Managing Director and Board.

LiRN provides a virtual connection for each conference for library staff who cannot attend in person.  LiRN cannot do breakout sessions or hands-on sessions at our LWL conference due to the extra costs of booking additional rooms.  Detailed programmes and speaker profiles are provided on the wiki each year.

LiRN pays the travel & accommodation for one staff member from each association to attend.  It is held in Toronto, generally in mid-October each year, is held on Thursday and half day Friday.

Materials after the conference are posted to our Learn with LiRN page as well as the appropriate wiki heading.

 

Professional Organizations for Librarians

CALL

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries is a helpful community to join.  They have an annual conference every year that many courthouse library staff attend.  In 2024, it will be held June 25th to June 28th, 2024 in Montreal.   Normally it is late May of every year.

If you wish to attend CALL, please include the costs to attend in your annual budget every year.  You will be expected to share some learning from CALL or other PD opportunities you have, at LiRN’s annual PD Learnings Roundtable in September.  See below for 2022 and 2023.

Some library staff attend the American Association of Law Libraries’ annual conferences.

CALL Law Librarians Institute (LLI)

The Law Librarians’ Institute is an opportunity for legal information professionals of any level of expertise to learn and / or refresh their legal research skills. Designed to meet the Competencies of a Legal Researcher in Canada, this problem-based course provides basic concepts pertinent to the Canadian legal system and includes plenty of detail, depth and opportunities to practice legal research. In particular, the course focuses on developing research skills related to federal legislation, court and tribunal decisions, and secondary sources, in addition to specialised topics such as Indigenous law, Quebec civil law, foreign and international law, and legal technology.  CALL members benefit from free registration to the virtual LII courses.   Course Syllabus.

Read here for more information about this course and possible certification.

2025 Course Schedule:

 DATE  COURSE
March 3 Introduction to the Canadian Legal System, legal terms and concepts (with virtual meet up)
March 10 Federal Legislative Research and Annual Statutes
March 17
 Federal Consolidated Statutes and amendments
March 24
 Federal Regulations
March 31
 The Operation of Time in Legal Matters (with virtual meet up summarizing federal research)
April 7
 Judicial Decisions Part One – introduction, case law citation styles, surveying sources for judicial decisions
April 14 Judicial Decisions Part Two – research process for case law, conducting efficient searches
April 21
 Judicial Decisions Part Three – understanding precedential value of case law, how to note up, update and locate the history of a case, citing case history (with virtual meet up summarizing case law)
April 28 Secondary Sources Part One
May 5 Secondary Sources Part Two (with virtual meet up summarizing secondary sources)

 

TALL

TALL is a vibrant community of law libraries and information centres, including law firm, academic, government, legislative, law society, courthouse, and corporate libraries, as well as several legal publishers.   Membership has many perks as well including a Salary Survey, Directory and much more!

They host a number of useful Lunch & Learn as well as their bi-annual conference, TALL eXchange, including in Fall 2024.   This year’s theme is AI:  Access to Information.

Professional Organizations for Librarians

 

 

 

Have any Professional Development Learning Tips?