Welcome to Our (Your) Library

Use the LSO's Infolocate to search for publications and resources in all 48 Ontario Law Libraries - and to determine which Libraries carry them:

InfoLocate

If we don't have the title you need, but another Library does, we can get it through Inter-Library Loan (see below)

One of our primary responsibilities as a County Law Association, is the management of our Law Library at the Walkerton Courthouse, which is funded by the Law Society of Ontario through their subsiduary, LiRN (Library & Information Resources Network).

The purpose of our Library is to serve the needs of the legal community, both within our County and visiting lawyers. The Library is not open to the public. Member lawyers are issued Key Cards by the Ministry of the Attorney General Courthouse management. Visiting lawyers from other jurisdictions can obtain "loaner" Key Cards from the Court Office (by depositing their driver's license to ensure their return). Visitors are welcome to access the Library and use our resources, however they are not allowed to sign out books or other resources.

Printing, photocopy and fax services are available to Member lawyers and Visitors, on a fee for use basis, for which rates are posted periodically. Members may open accounts and obtain photocopier / printer use "Codes" in order to use the printer / photocopier on a 24/7 basis, for which they are billed quarterly. Visitors can only access these services during staff in-office hours, Monday through Thursday, 10 am to 4 pm.

Services & Resources

Libib - Digital Online Catalogue

As mentioned in a recent News Blog (Sep. 20/23), we are slowly but surely digitizing our Bruce Law Association - Bruce County Law Library catalogue, using an online program database platform called Libib. As of today (Sep. 28/23) we have 202 tiles entered into the system.

We entered all the titles receive since last August (around 100), and now we are entering the newest and more relevant of the remaining titles. For the Annual / Bi-Annual CPD titles, we have only (so far) entered the most recent. For most areas of law we have only entered titles published within the last 10 years.

Eventually, as time permits, we will enter our entire present contemporary collection of borrowable books and reference-only titles.

So, if you are looking to see what's on our shelves, check it out

Also remember you can search for any and all titles on the LSO

Info-Locate website, to see if we have it (or where we can get it)

Libib

Lifo-Locate

Printing, Photocopying & Faxing

Printing, photocopy and fax services are available to Member lawyers and Visitors, on a fee for use basis, for which rates are posted periodically. Members may open accounts and obtain photocopier / printer "User Codes" in order to use the printer / photocopier on a 24/7 basis, for which they are billed quarterly. Visitors can only access these services during staff in-office hours, Monday through Thursday, 10 am to 4 pm.

Printing From Your Own Device (via Wifi)

Most of our lawyers bring their own laptops with them when they attend court or visit the library. If you would like to print directly from your personal laptop to the Library Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE C350iF Printer/Copier via Wifi (without doing the thumb-drive/sneaker-shuffle), you only need to install the print driver on your laptop and use your existing member User Code,. If you are visiting the Library during open hours, John can provide you with the necessary files, or you can download them and install them yourself directly from Canon.

Lawyer Computer Workstations

We have two Lawyer Computer Workstations, through which Members and Visitors can edit and print documents, use the many e-Research tools made available through LiRN and the lSO, do on-line searching, and many other tasks. We have been (as of Dec 2022) waiting over 8 months to receive new workstation computers, which will be a great improvement. The new computers are laptops with docking stations, and will be much more powerful and faster than the old units. To be ergonomically friendly they will come with large desktop monitors, wireless keyboards and mice, and headsets for private online conversations.

High Speed Internet

We have contracted with Wightman Telecom to obtain high speed, fiber optic, internet service. The necessary locates to determine where the underground service could be installed was done Dec. 8th & Wightmans were here the next day to route the underground cable. Now we are only awaiting the installation of the service panel, wiring and new router, then we will be state of the art. The current download speed (with the ancient DSL service) is about 15 to 20 mps. The new fiber optic service will be over 300 mps.

Document Delivery / Interlibrary Loan

In January 2003 a formal Document Delivery Agreement was adopted by LibraryCo concerning the sharing of resources amongst County and District law libraries. The agreement allows for the lending and borrowing of returnable (books) and non-returnable (copies) material between all libraries. If we do not have what you need in our Library, but it exists in one of the other 47 law libraries across the Province, we can get it for you in most cases, sometimes as early as the next business day, but usually within a couple of business days. There is no charge to our members for this service.

Use Infolocate to view the holdings of the Great Library and all the County and District libraries, and when you find what you need in one of the otheree libraries. let us know and we will request it to be sent to us by Interlibrary Loan.

Borrowing Library Material

Most print material can be signed out by BLA members for 2 week (14 day) loans. Borrowing privileges are restricted to paid up members of the BLA and their students.

Wifi

The Library at the Walkerton Courthouse is equipped with free secure WiFi to make it easier for BLA members and other visiting LSO licensees to work while away from the office. Visit library office for the WiFi username and password, or see postings in the library.

Research

As most of our Members know, our Library Assistant, John, is a retired lawyer with some experience in legal research, primarily using Quick Law in the past.

John is in the process of obtaining training from the newer e-Resource providers (including v|Lex, Westlaw, ProView, One Pass), working towards becoming much more proficient with these platforms in terms of both assisting Members learning to use these powerful resources, and in terms of assisting our Members with their research needs.

NOTICE & DISCLAIMER

When research requests are received, we cannot guarantee that materials will be sent by the requested date. We will do our best to meet requested dates, however, depending on the depth of the question and any other prior submissions already in queue, this may not be feasible. We will do our best to inform you in advance if we are unable meet your requested delivery date. Our Library is only staffed on a part-time basis, which could also impact turn around times.

Also note that our Library Administrator does not have an in-depth understanding of all areas of law and may require extra time, or seek outside assistance, to complete complex research questions.

We also working toward determining what outside resources may be available to our Members, through our Library, for obtaining professional research services for complex or unusual matters, within the Law Library system here in Ontario.

Electronic Resources

Available by Remote Access

HeinOnline (Full text articles from English language legal periodicals, dictionaries, and legislative material. LSO members please contact the Great Library at refstaff@lso.ca to obtain your log-in information)
Canadian Law Blogs Search Engine (Google custom search filter: search law blogs for articles by experts.)
FeeFieFoeFirmCanada (Google custom search filter: search law firm websites for legal experts, law firm bulletins, press releases, etc.)
My Support Calculator (Calculator, instructions and worksheets that will help explain how to calculate child & spousal support amounts.)
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (Industry sector intelligence, financial benchmarks, labour trends and business statistics.)
SEDAR (Securities documents and information filed by public companies and investment funds.)
EDGAR (US Securities and Exchange Commission filings.)
OECD.org (Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development: global economic and trade data.)
Legalline.ca (Searchable database of answers to legal questions. Available in 107 languages..)

Available in Library Only

Available on Lawyer Workstations

Lexis Advance Quicklaw (Canadian case law, legislation, and commentary)
WestlawNext Canada (Canadian case law, legislation, and commentary)
Lexis Practice Advisor (Forms, precedents, and practice notes. Includes Wills, Trusts & Estates, Family, Commercial, Employment, Corporate, Litigation, Insolvency, and Personal injury)
O'Brien's Encyclopedia of Forms (Legal forms and precedents)
Thomson Reuters ProView (Texts, looseleafs, and annotations. Includes Estates & Trusts Source, Insolvency, Law and Family Source packages)
DivorceMate (Spousal support and child support payment calculator)
v|Lex (AI powered legal research, Canadian case law, legislation, and commentary. Over 300,000 Canadian cases, dating back to 1876. Includes Irwin Law's Essentials of Canadian Law Series.)
Wrongful Dismissal Database

Use of these eResources is governed by Canadian copyright law and the terms and conditions of the licence agreements between the Law Society of Ontario and resource providers. Each user is responsible for complying with these terms and conditions, including any restrictions on printing, emailing, and downloading licenced content.

AccessCLE

To view or download a chapter in a LSO CPD binder you may search for it here: AccessCLE

Some CPD binders were never printed, but you can read the contents of a binder here by searching for the title.

Canadian Legal Publishers

When you find books on the publisher's sites that are not in the InfoLocate catalogue, we encourage you ask us to consider purchasing the book. Although we cannot guarantee that we will purchase the item, we will consider it. Keep in mind, however, that most libraries in the system are trying to cut down on purchasing printed versions of loose leaf updated titles, especially as more and more of these will hopefully become available online at the Library.