Le Capital au XXIe siècle

Can you imagine a book about economics being the number 15 on the best-sellers list of the Amazon? It is something rather hard to believe, but it is happening now with the Thomas Piketty book Le Capital au XXIe siècle. Published in French in 2013, and in English translation, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, in 2014, it had the first printings sold out almost immediately. Guardian is writing about Piketty-mania and reviews it for the readers who are not sure they can get through all 800 pages of economic wisdom; CBC sees its influence in the Ontario provincial elections; the Economist, Washington Post, New York Times, and many others publish articles and opinion pieces about Piketty and his theory… This list can be endless. Just take a look at the footnotes to French and English versions of this Wikipedia article – it will give you an understanding of the scope of the hype…

I hope that I have your attention now. We have just got a copy of the French edition of Le Capital au XXIe siècle at the Law Library and an English edition is expected shortly. Enjoy!

New Exhibit: Thought and Action: Fragments of Professor Roderick Alexander Macdonald’s (1948-2014) Life in the Law.

photoTo honour the life and work of the late Professor Roderick Alexander Macdonald who passed away on Friday, June the 13th, the Nahum Gelber Law Library opens a new exhibit: Thought and Action: Fragments of Professor Roderick Alexander Macdonald’s (1948-2014) Life in the Law.

A teacher, first and foremost, Roderick A. Macdonald will be remembered as one of the most important scholars and thinkers in McGill University’s history. He was a mentor and inspiration to generations of students and law professors, and a transformative force at the Faculty of Law, the University, in Canadian society, and in the broader world. Read the full obituary here.

The exhibit was prepared by Svetlana Kochkina, Librarian at the Nahum Gelber Law Library. 

New Edition of the Red Book is Here!!!

New, 8th, edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, a.k.a. McGill Cite Guide or Red Book is published.

What’s new for the 8th edition:

  • A new section in the General Rules giving guidance for citing to online sources
  • A new section providing a rule for “point in time” citations for legislation
  • A the section on the Government Documents rules was reorganised to provide clarity, especially for Non-Parliamentary Documents
  • A greatly expanded section on online sources, including forms for blogs, twitter, and online video (including a pinpoint form)

At present, we have 3 copies of the new Red Book available: two on Law Library reserve and one in the Reference collection. More copies are expected to arrive by the beginning of the 2014 – 2015 school year.

Bill 52, An Act respecting end-of-life care

Yesterday, Quebec has become the first province to legalise doctor-assisted death as part of comprehensive end-of-life legislation. Bill 52, An Act respecting end-of-life care, received broad support from nearly 80 per cent of MNAs of the National Assembly. If you are interested in learning more about the legal and ethical issues of euthanasia and the state of right-to-die legislation at different jurisdictions, the McGill Library offers a wide range of publications on the subject.

Changes in Access to Electronic Resources

The McGill Library is making important changes in the access to electronic resources.

On Wednesday, June 4, 2014, the electronic resources (e-books, e-journals, databases, open access resources) will be removed from the Classic Catalogue.

  • The Classic Catalogue will continue to contain all the items in our local collections, including print books and journals, DVDs, microform, etc.
  • E-resources will be removed from the following sub-catalogues: full, audio-visual and journal titles
  • The McGill Theses sub-catalogue will not be affected by this change, and will still contain both print and electronic materials.
  • eExams will not be affected by this change, and will continue to be available as they were before.
  • Course Reserves will still display e-resources on reserve for McGill courses.
  • You can continue to access all our e-resources through WorldCat.

On Monday, June 9, 2014 the eResearch Gateway will be taken off-line.

  • The eResearch Gateway was an alternate way of searching for articles, databases, and other electronic resources. This functionality is now provided for the most part by WorldCat and the Library’s subject guides.
  • The Law Subject guide includes all the legal databases to which the McGill Library is currently subscribing.
  • If you have used saved articles using the My Research feature, you’ll need to export those article references before June 9. You can find more information about how to export the articles here.

In June, our link old resolver (“Find It”) will be migrated to OCLC’s WorldCat Link Resolver service.

  • For the most part, the change in link resolver will happen automatically and will not require any intervention on your part.
  • If you use Google Scholar to search for articles, you will need to configure it to use the new WorldCat Link Resolver to access articles that are available through the Library. You can find the information about configuring the Google Scholar here.

If you have any questions regarding upcoming changes, please do not hesitate to contact any of the liaison librarians for Law.