By Alan Kilpatrick
On Tuesday, May 26, 2025, I am co-presenting a session at the 2025 Canadian Association of Law Libraries with Ana San Miguel, Roman Lanzarotta, Charmaine Tierney, Lorissa Kinna, and Angela Ashton.
Beyond the Legal Profession: Access to Justice and Legal Information Initiatives for Public Users
Legal information can help people with legal problems better understand the law, identify ways of resolving legal issues, and learn about legal rights and responsibilities. Access to legal information is an essential element to achieving access to justice and an engaged citizenry. Join this cross-country panel to learn about the key role Canadian law libraries play in the justice system and how they are helping expand public access to legal information and justice.
The panelists, representing law libraries nationwide, will discuss how they are “moving mountains” to reach beyond legal professionals and build connections directly with the public. Each panelist will share some innovative programs to connect members of the public with legal information, legal resources, and options for legal advice. Attendees will hear about successes, failures, and challenges of these initiatives and how they can support public access to legal information in their library.
By Alan Kilpatrick
On Friday, May 9, 2025, at 12:00 pm, I am co-presenting a session at the 2025 Saskatchewan Libraries Conference with Ken Fox: Saskatchewan Premium Legal Resources Pilot Launched.
Saskatchewan residents can now register for free online access to premium legal eBooks and databases through the Law Society of Saskatchewan’s new Premium Legal Resources program! These premium resources will help members of the public gain a basic understanding of the law and learn about their legal rights and responsibilities. They may also enable members of the public to identify the range of legal options available within the legal system and potential next steps.
The Law Society of Saskatchewan (via its Legal Resources library) connects members of the public with legal information resources through its physical courthouse libraries and online resources. Our team strives to provide the greatest possible public access to our digital resources in response to the needs demonstrated in the 2021 Legal Needs Assessment for Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, providing public access to online legal resources is challenging, as commercial vendors have restrictive licensing terms, making access difficult. As collection shifts away from print legal resources to commercial online legal resources, public access to online legal resources is increasingly threatened.
Over the past five years, our team has worked with Canada’s commercial legal information vendors to develop a solution and agree on a framework to provide reasonable public access to their resources in a way that met our need to provide public access to resources and respected the vendors’ needs to sell their products. In 2024, our team finalized this work and launched the Premium Legal Resources program, providing temporary free access to legal eBooks and databases. We hope this project represents an enduring way to connect members of the Saskatchewan public with legal information.
Alongside this project and in tandem, we built a new online portal on the Law Society website called For the Public: Get Legal Information, Resources, and Options for Assistance to help centralize free sources of legal information and assistance sources understandably. Saskatchewan’s many sources of legal information and assistance can be confusing for those unfamiliar with the law and legal sector. This portal helps make it easier for members of the public to learn about the law, research the law, register for the premium legal resources we’ve just presented, find options for legal assistance, and obtain legal information. Attendees will:
• Learn about the demonstrated need for legal information in Saskatchewan
• Learn about the Law Society of Saskatchewan’s Premium Legal Resource program.
• Learn about collaborating with information vendors to develop novel ways to connect the public with information.
By Alan Kilpatrick
On Thursday, May 8, 2025, at 2:30 pm, I am co-presenting a session at the 2025 Saskatchewan Libraries Conference with RCMP Librarian Marika Hunter: Forgotten Patrons: Building Library Services for Saskatchewan Incarcerated Population.
We need your help. Libraries are fundamental for incarcerated individuals. Literacy activities and reading materials positively affect their lives and experiences. They serve an essential role in reintegration, connecting to and mirroring the outside world, and preparing individuals for release.
Unfortunately, incarcerated individuals in Saskatchewan are an underserved segment of our province’s population who do not have adequate access to library services. Many prisons lack formal libraries and recreational, cultural, and educational reading materials.
The Saskatchewan Library Association (SLA) established a Prison Library Sub-Committee in 2021 to address the deficit of reading materials available to incarcerated youths and adults in Saskatchewan’s correctional facilities.
More still needs to be done. How can you and your library help? Take advantage of this must-see session to learn how to get involved.
Attendees will learn about:
• The importance of library services in prisons
• The SLA’s Prison Library Sub-Committee and its activities
• The importance of building relationships with correctional centres while building prison library services
By Alan Kilpatrick
I am participating in a panel presentation at the 2024 Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference. Here is the session description:
Within Bars But Not Without Rights: Legal Information And Library Access for Incarcerated Persons
Tuesday, June 25, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Le Centre Sheraton Montreal Hotel, 1201 René-Lévesque Blvd W, Montreal, Quebec H3B 2L7
Drummond C-E
This session is free for all. Preregistration is required as space is limited. Register here.
Prison libraries are fundamental as they provide access to information about the rights of the incarcerated person and the tools necessary to access those rights.
Imprisoned Canadians are an underserved segment of the population who lack adequate access to legal information and library services. Most provincial prisons do not have formal libraries. Without a legislated requirement for library access to books and materials, incarcerated persons lack recreational, cultural, educational, and law reading materials.
As more legal information is placed online, incarcerated persons are being excluded from simple access to the law. The “language of law” is not available to this group.
Join an impressive group of panelists and advocates from across the country working to better connect their province’s incarcerated populations with legal information and library services:
• The Honourable Kim Pate, Senate of Canada
• Helen Anderson, Director, CLEO Connect
• Ava Sinclair, Buffalo Sage Wellness House
• Alan Kilpatrick, Law Society of Saskatchewan
• Romy Otayek, Centre de recherche de Montréal sur les inégalités sociales, les discriminations et les pratiques alternatives de citoyenneté
• Karen Sawatzky, Manitoba Law Library
• Kirsten Wurmann, Manitoba Library Association
Find out more about these initiatives: the barriers and challenges of working within carceral environments, successful projects and lessons learned, and take away concrete ideas of how to serve incarcerated persons in your area.
While some of the panelists are Francophone, this session will be primarily offered in English.
Amplifying Legal Information and Assistance Access Through Collaboration & Partnership: SALI in 2023
By Alan Kilpatrick
I am presenting Amplifying Legal Information and Assistance Access Through Collaboration & Partnership: SALI in 2023 at the 2023 Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference on Tuesday, May 30th, 1:30pm. Here is the session description:
The Saskatchewan Access to Legal Information (SALI) initiative is a collaborative partnership among justice stakeholders and libraries working to amplify legal information and assistance access in the province with community partners who are providing legal information. Project partners include Create Justice, Law Society of Saskatchewan, Office of the King’s Printer, Public Legal Education Association of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice, Saskatchewan public libraries, and the University of Saskatchewan.
Don’t miss this must-see session to learn more about SALI, our efforts to improve legal information access, and our new direction for 2023.
Throughout 2021, SALI pursued an “organizational refresh” by offering a free virtual conference series and asking for audience feedback and ideas about future projects and directions. Nearly 300 attendees, a mix of community organizations, lawyers, and library staff engaged with us throughout the year and provided feedback.
In 2022, SALI began moving forward with a robust new plan based on the feedback we received:
• Launching a quarterly newsletter to connect more effectively with community partners and better amplify Saskatchewan legal information.
• Creating a trio of complementary, robust resources designed to assist legal information providers in Saskatchewan in connecting members of the public with information about the law, legal advice/assistance, and community supports.
• Developing a curated collection development aid for Saskatchewan libraries, of any type, wishing to strengthen and add resources to their legal collections.
We are excited to share SALI’s work and progress with you.
By Alan Kilpatrick
Want to learn more about Canada’s laws? Are you experiencing a legal issue and need some information about the law? Then stop by the Regina Public Library or the Saskatoon Public Library for free legal information assistance.
We’re here to help you find legal information and teach you how to use legal resources. Legal information can help you better understand the law and enable you to identify the range of legal options available to you within our legal system. If you need more than information about the law, we’ll refer you to organizations and lawyers that provide legal advice, including those who offer free and low-cost legal assistance. It can be hard to know where to go to get legal advice. Our law librarians have expert referral knowledge of legal assistance organizations in Saskatchewan.
Not in Regina or Saskatoon or want to speak to us right away? Call us anytime for legal information assistance or visit us in-person at one of our locations!
Questions?
Email us at reference@lawsociety.sk.ca.
Call us (306) 569-8020 or toll-free 1-877-989-4999 (Regina), (306) 933-5141 or toll-free 1-888-989-7499 (Saskatoon).
Visit us 2425 Victoria Ave (Regina King’s Bench), 520 Spadina Cres E. (Saskatoon King’s Bench) or our website.
By Alan Kilpatrick
Check out three recent Legal Skies podcast episodes I participated in:
S4E3 – Access Free Saskatchewan Legal Resources (23 June 2022)
Continuing professional development (CPD) content is an important research source for the practice of law. More than 800 documents focused on Saskatchewan law are now available on CanLii. Learn more about what’s available on Canlii from our guests Sarah Sutherland, President and CEO of Canlii, and Alan Kilpatrick, Co-Director of Legal Resources at the Law Society of Saskatchewan.
S3E4 – Artificial Intelligence and Legal Information (22 September 2021)
In the latest episode of Legal Skies, we speak to guests Alan Kilpatrick, Co-Director of Legal Resources at the Law Society of Saskatchewan, and Sarah Sutherland, Director of Programs and Projects at CanLII, about artificial intelligence (AI) and legal information. They discuss the new AI classification system to help find resources easier and more efficient. Click here for more information.
S3E2 – Law Librarians and their Role in Access to Justice (11 June 2021)
We discuss the important role information professionals (i.e. law librarians) play in the justice system and how they are helping expand public access to legal information. Our guests are Alan Kilpatrick, Co-Director of Legal Resources at the Law Society of Saskatchewan, Shaunna Mireau, Past-President of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, and Kim Nayyer, Associate Dean of the Cornell Law School and President of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries.
You can listen to other episodes from the Law Society of Saskatchewan’s Legal Skies podcast here!
By Alan Kilpatrick
Are you attending the virtual CBA Saskatchewan Mid-Winter Meeting 2022? The Law Society’s Legal Resources team is hosting a virtual exhibitor booth this year. What can we do for you? Please stop by our booth “virtually” to connect with us over video and text chat!
This is a great opportunity to connect with members of your Legal Resources team and learn about the latest online resources you can access through the Members’ Resource Section. We can make sure you’re ready for the next generation of legal research tools.
Watch our booth’s Welcome Video here:
Our innovative information services and resources advance the Law Society’s Strategic Plan, support you and your competency, and increase access to legal information for all throughout the province.
It’s no secret that you have access to the best collection of online and print resources available to members of any law society in the country. Regardless of your practice location, firm size, or resource cost, rest assured you have access has access to the resources they need, on-demand, to practice law competently.
Contact us by email, chat, or phone with your legal information questions. As your legal information navigators, we can find whatever you’re looking for. If it takes longer than five minutes to find, ask us!
By Alan Kilpatrick
Legal Skies Podcast, S3 E2, Librarians and Access to Justice
What role do legal information professionals (otherwise known as law librarians) play in the legal industry?
To learn more, we speak to three guests in today’s Law Society of Saskatchewan Legal Skies podcast episode: Alan Kilpatrick, Co-Director of Legal Resources at the Law Society of Saskatchewan, Shaunna Mireau, Past-President of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, and Kim Nayyer, Associate Dean of the Cornell Law School and President of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries.
Alan, Shaunna, and Kim discuss the important role information professionals are playing in the justice system and how they are helping expand public access to legal information and justice.
Listen to the episode here.
By Alan Kilpatrick
Queen’s Bench forms now have a new home! Starting now, you can access editable Word versions of legislated Queen’s Bench Forms directly through the Publications Saskatchewan website here.
As you may know, the Law Society has created and published editable versions of the Queen’s Bench Forms for the benefit of members and the public for the past several years. To avoid duplication of efforts, the Law Society will be removing these forms from its website. We encourage you to bookmark the official new home of Queen’s Bench forms in Saskatchewan, the Publications Saskatchewan website!
The forms, organized alphabetically and by form number, can be downloaded in PDF and Word format.
The Law Society was proud to create and provide these forms for the past several years and is pleased they are now accessible to you on Publications Saskatchewan.
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