Courthouse Libraries BC aims to level access to legal information resources among lawyers. It provides digital legal tools and resources to lawyers through branch computers, including databases like Quicklaw and Westlaw. It also offers an exclusive online Reading Room for BC lawyers, providing over 1,500 legal journals and digitized issues of the Advocate dating back to 1943. Recently, Courthouse Libraries BC has delivered over 50 free CPD-accredited training events to help lawyers learn to find information using modern tools. Its goal is to balance access and be the "great equalizer of legal information resources" for lawyers regardless of their practice size or location.

1. VOL. 71 PART I JANUARY 2013
NEWS FROM
COURTHOUSE
LIBRARIES BC
By Nathaniel R.Russell*
COURTHOUSE LIBRARIES B.C., AN EQUALIZER OF LEGAL
INFORMATION RESOURCES AMONG LAWYERS
It has been said-though perhaps not often-that "The library is the soul of
the legal profession." Former Advocate editor, now jurist, Thomas S. Woods
used these words to begin his May 2003 "Entre Nous" column. He was
responding to millennial fears that the rise of electronic databases would
smother B.C.'s network of courthouse libraries, and indeed librarianship
itself, and bury them in obsolescence. Would the cresting wave of Internet-
based research overcome the struggling figure of librarianship, swamping it
and crashing its lifeless form on the cruel silicon shore? No, it was heard-
though perhaps just that once-for you cannot kill the soul. In the words of
the erstwhile editor Woods:
Electronic access to court decisions...is now highly sophisticated and available to
any member of the profession, almost literally, at the push of a button. Rather
than rendering them obsolete, this has made courthouse libraries even more valu-
able to the profession.
Courthouse Libraries B.C. has had difficulty defining a value proposition
in this way. We wrote a regular column in the Advocate years ago, but we
tended to cover collection development and other regular news. Champions
within the legal profession leapt up to conflate the libraries with law's spiri-
tual core. Meanwhile we discussed what we were doing, but not so much the
why.
Looking forward, in coming issues of the-Advocate we will address the con-
text of challenges facing the profession before delving into what resources and
solutions we've gathered and developed to answer the demands of B.C.
lawyers. Especially if you're a small-firm lawyer, you'll want to pay attention.
* Nathaniel I. Russell is a legal community liaison xith (Courthouse Libraries 13..
THE ADVOCATE 73

2. VOL. 71 PART I JANUARY 2013
LEVELLING OUT ACCESS TO INFORMATION
The costs of reference texts and tools like Westlaw or Quicklaw are toughest
on small firms and solos. Furthermore, research disbursements, once recover-
able, are now being denied as overhead and not "atrue disbursement applic-
able to an individual file".' Courthouse Libraries B.C. has long aimed to ease
disparity between modest-earning lawyers and their better-off counterparts.
Even if you see fewer up-to-date printed report series on the shelves in
your local library, I assure you the branch computers embody more than the
print collection ever could have for any price close to within your means. For
those of you who don't know, branch computers are loaded with digital tools
like CLE Online (with practice manuals and course materials), Quicklaw,
Westlaw and others such as Quickscribe-an incredible legislation reference
tool. More Canadian law is available for free than ever before. To this extent,
the digital migration of legal resources has invigorated, rather than suffo-
cated, the role of the local courthouse library.
The majority of B.C. lawyers are a short trip away from a branch, and
those who qualify as rural practitioners can avail themselves of the Rural
Lawyer Credit and obtain document delivery at no CoSt.2
GO A STEP FURTHER AND NEVER LEAVE YOUR CHAIR-ENTER THE
ONLINE READING ROOM
With CanLil on a roll, tearing up the toll booths on legal research's major
highways, there are fewer instances where you need to start with costly tools
for caselaw research. That is not to say you shouldn't note up-but for many
chores, CanL!! is broom enough.For commentary, on the other hand, most
B.C. lawyers are still in search of the Holy Grail, a free set of online resources
accessible from the desktop. Like, say, 1,500 legal journals, nearly 150 Cana-
dian legal textbooks and fully digitized back issues of the Advocate dating to
1943. 1 say most, and leave out all lawyers, because about 10 per cent have
already discovered the Reading Room, which launched in 2012. It's exclusive
and completely free to members of the Law Society of B.C. Head online to
<www.courthouselibraryca> to enroll now.
FREE CPD CREDITS ACROSS THE PROVINCE
Courthouse Libraries B.C. recently started training B.C. lawyers in how to
find information they need, using in-person workshops, events at our
branches, webinars and training at local bar association meetings. We do this
to build confidence with modern information-finding tools and to give
lawyers a break on the costs of meeting CPD requirements. By mid-Novem-
ber 2012, we had delivered 56 CPD-accredited training events to lawyers
and enabled 500 lawyers to obtain 750 hours of free CPD credits.
74 TH E ADVOCATE

3. VOL. 71 PART I JANUARY 2013
COURTHOUSE LIBRARIES B.C. AS EQUALIZER
The business of law differs remarkably from one practice to the next. Van-
couver's top 25 per cent of self-employed lawyers (equity partners and solos)
earned over $250,000 in 2010; the bottom quarter earned around $60,000
or less.3
Downtown lease premiums aside, overheads are not always as vari-
able as billings of lawyers across the province. Law Society fees are universal,
inexorable and insensitive to the profitability of their source. Database
licences, law texts and office provisioning costs rarely favour weaker buying
power-and when it comes to CPD credits, let's say some lawyers are "early
birding" it more vigilantly than others. The rural practitioner faces these
troubles and more.
Such challenges are increasingly part of the wly behind Courthouse
Libraries B.C.'s mission. The what part follows, and involves levelling the
playing field by providing better access to legal information (including out-
side the courthouses), free CPD credits and an effective campaign to get the
word out. If we were ever the soul of the legal profession, we are surely its bal-
ance-wheel, the great equalizer of legal information resources among lawyers.
Lawyers don't have to be Googling their way out of a research problem when
they can CLBC a way out.
The soul of the legal profession is grateful to be able to haunt the Advo-
cate's pages once more. We look forward to telling you more about all the
ways Courthouse Libraries B.C. can help your practice in 2013.
ENDNOTES
1. See an increasingly common treatment of Compensation and Benefits (ommis-
such research costs in Master Mc)i- sion", online. <http://xwv.quadcom.gc.
armid's rcasons in Pareit v Lohia, 2012 ca/Mcdia/Pdf/2011 /opcning_submission.
BCSC 1677at para 61. pdf>.
2. Up to a $50 credit per year.
3. "In the Matter of the Judges Act, RSC
1985, c J-1, as amcndcd: 2011 Judicial
Alw,1"t .t •- .A " I,
THE ADVOCATE 75