*********************************************************************** NEWS FROM AUSTLII http://www.austlii.edu.au/ Tuesday 22 September 1998 *********************************************************************** CONTENTS: Australian Internet Awards Meet AustLII staff at Lexpo '98 Survey results now available New Cooperative arrangements between AustLII & SCALEplus Legislation on AustLII now updated daily AustLII to obtain Queensland legislation AustLII to obtain WA Supreme Court decisions Thankyou to AustLII's major stakeholders World Law facilities growing New AustLII staff appointments New databases and home pages ----------------------------------------- AUSTRALIAN INTERNET AWARDS - PLEASE VOTE FOR AUSTLII http://203.37.209.5/voting.cfm Please vote for AustLII for 'Most Popular Australian Web Site' in the Australian Internet Awards 1998. In 1996 and 1997 Australia's intenet users voted AustLII as one of the Top 5 in the 'Most Popular Australian Web Site' vote in the Telstra / Australian Financial Review Australian Internet Awards. This year, with the help of AustLII's users, we would like to do even better. Votes close 5:00 pm 25 September 1998 (this Friday!), so please vote now if you haven't already done so - it only takes about two minutes if you follow the guide below. You can vote for AustLII by filling out the form at http://203.37.209.5/voting.cfm The information needed to complete the form is as follows: URL - http://www.austlii.edu.au/ Site title - Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) Site owner - UTS and UNSW Faculties of Law In the rest of this News we hope you will find a lot of new reasons to give us your vote. ------------------------------------------- MEET AUSTLII STAFF AT LEXPO '98 Please come and visit us at Stand 28 on 22-23 October 1998. Lexpo - the Technology Exhibition - will be held at the Centrepoint Convention & Exhibition Centre, 100 Market St, Sydney (October 22: 9-6pm; October 23: 9-4pm). There are a limited number of free entry passes set aside for our users. If you wish to obtain one, please contact us on feedback@austlii.edu.au with your postal address. ------------------------------------------- SURVEY RESULTS NOW AVAILABLE http://www.austlii.edu.au/austlii/survey/ AustLII's first user survey received over 1500 responses and we are releasing a summary of results as promised. We are currently reading the comments our users submitted (over 90 pages worth!), and a summary of those (with some responses) will appear shortly. We'd like to thank the many users who responded to our survey. Your feedback is being used in the design of the next version of AustLII, a preview of which will be unveiled at Lexpo '98 (see above). ------------------------------------------- NEW COOPERATIVE ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN AUSTLII AND SCALEPLUS SCALEplus and AustLII have now completed reviewing and formalising our previous cooperative arrangements, and have agreed on a new set of arrangements which will enable our two systems to share the burden of collecting and exchanging legislation and case law from the sources of the data, to the benefit of the users of both our services. We have also agreed to cooperate in relation to technical assistance and data standards, and we expect this will also have long-term benefits for our users. Completion of the agreement now enables AustLII to update the databases for which SCALEplus supplies our data. AustLII wishes to thank the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department Office of Legislative Drafting (the operators of SCALEplus) for its cooperative approach. ------------------------------------------- LEGISLATION ON AUSTLII NOW UPDATED DAILY One of the first benefits of our new agreement with SCALEplus is that we are able to use our web spider technology to update the legislation we source from SCALEplus on a daily basis. See http://www.austlii.edu.au/austlii/updates.html for more details, and links to the Commonwealth Legislation updates. This facility has since been extended to our A.C.T. and South Australian legislation, and other legislation databases will follow in due course. Thanks to SCALEplus for assisting us to provide this facility. ------------------------------------------- AUSTLII TO OBTAIN QUEENSLAND LEGISLATION The new Queensland Government has agreed to AustLII publishing Queensland legislation. AustLII will be obtaining the legislation from the Queensland Office of Parliamentary Counsel and will make it available as soon as possible. AustLII thanks the Premier of Queensland for making the legislation available. ------------------------------------------- AUSTLII TO OBTAIN WESTERN AUSTRALIA SUPREME COURT DECISIONS The Attorney-General of Western Australia has agreed to a recommendation of the Law Reporting Advisory Board that decisions of the Supreme Court of Western Australia be made available to AustLII for publication, subject to our entering into an appropriate licensing agreement. AustLII thanks the Attorney-General and the Law Reporting Advisory Board for their decisions. ------------------------------------------- A 'THANK YOU' TO AUSTLII'S MAJOR STAKEHOLDERS AustLII's 1998/99 funding has been consolidated thanks to the generosity of two of our major 'stakeholders'. We would particularly like to thank the Law Foundation of New South Wales for its grant to support our NSW Primary Materials and our key Commonwealth Primary Materials databases. We would also like to thank the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for its grant to support our Australian Treaties Library. AustLII welcomes enquiries from any organisations interested in supporting our provision of free access to Australian legal information. ------------------------------------------- WORLD LAW FACILITIES GROWING http://www.austlii.edu.au/World/ In addition to all the new databases on AustLII, our facilities for searching legal information not on AustLII have been expanding rapidly. The full texts from over 500 key law sites around the world are now searchable in World Law Search, and World Law Index provides links to around 2,000 sites. Try searching World Law Search for any topic you wish - we think you will be surprised at the precision and scope of the results. Australian sites are particularly well covered - try searching for materials about an Australian piece of legislation, or a case. ------------------------------------------- NEW AUSTLII STAFF APPOINTMENTS AustLII has had a number of new staff appointments and changes over the last few months. James Wan has joined us to work on primary legal materials, and particularly on NSW materials, thanks to the continuing support from the Law Foundation of NSW. James is completing his combined computer science and law degree. Richard Wells has joined us to work on 'secondary' legal materials and special libraries, including Australian Law Reform Commission materials. Richard is completing his combined computer science and law degree. David Irvine has secured a position with Deloitte Touche & Tomatsu. He will be missed here at AustLII and we wish him the very best in his new role. ------------------------------------------- NEW DATABASES AND HOME PAGES Some recent databases and home pages added to AustLII: Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) Site http://www.alrc.gov.au/ ACT Administrative Appeals Tribunal Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/act/ACTAAT/ Industrial and Labour Law Project http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/industrial/ NSW Compensation Court Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/nsw/NSWCC/ NSW Dust Diseases Tribunal Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/nsw/NSWDDT/ NSW Industrial Relations Commission Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/nsw/NSWIRComm/ NSW Office of State Revenue Rulings http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/NSWOSR/ NSW Strata Schemes Board Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/nsw/ssb/ South Australian Industrial Relations Court Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/sa/SAIRC/ South Australian Industrial Relations Commission Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/sa/SAIRComm/ South Australian Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunal Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/sa/SAWCAT/ South Australian Workers Compensation Tribunal Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/sa/SAWCT/ Supreme Court of Victoria Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VSC/ Supreme Court of Victoria - Court of Appeal Decisions http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VSCA/ WA Consolidated Legislation http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/ WA Consolidated Regulations http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_reg/ ------------------------------------------- Please feel free to distribute 'News from AustLII' either electronically or in print form. Please try to avoid unsanctioned cross-postings to news groups or e-mail lists. To subscribe or unsubscribe to AustLII news: http://www.austlii.edu.au/news/ ------------------------------------------- Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) http://www.austlii.edu.au/ PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007 AUSTRALIA Ph: (02) 9514 3444 (intl +61 2 9514 3444) Fax: (02) 9514 3400 (intl +61 2 9514 3400) General e-mail feedback@austlii.edu.au Andrew Mowbray (Co-Director UTS) andrew@austlii.edu.au Graham Greenleaf (Co-Director UNSW) graham@austlii.edu.au Philip Chung (Manager) philip@austlii.edu.au Daniel Austin dan@austlii.edu.au Tejinder Gill tejinder@austlii.edu.au Joseph Kwok joseph@austlii.edu.au Siobhan McCann siobhan@austlii.edu.au Cathy Thompson cathy@austlii.edu.au James Wan james@austlii.edu.au Richard Wells richard@austlii.edu.au ------------------------------ End of News from AustLII ------------------------------