DIAL News ========= 24 December 2001 2001/12 In this issue: * NEW WORLD LAW SEARCHES * NEW LEGISLATION * OTHER NEW AND UPDATED MATERIALS * LAW AND POLICY REFORM * FEATURED WEBSITE * RESEARCH TIPS * DIAL TRAINING We hope DIAL News has been useful to you and we will welcome you back in the new year 2002 with more news from World Law/DIAL. ********************************************************************** NEW WORLD LAW SEARCHES A new search option has now been introduced to World Law with the integration of an interface to the popular Google search engine. On each page of the World Law catalog there is now a choice between searching 'All World Law' (the default option), only the websites located on the particular directory page you are on, or, 'Law on Google'. This latter option in the search box - 'Law on Google' - is new. Google is at present the Internet-wide search engine with the greatest coverage (it claims to cover over 2 billion Web pages). This will allow World Law users to undertake the most comprehensive possible research as they can now repeat any searches they do using AustLII's law site-specific search engine over the far wider body of data made searchable by Google. World Law users now also have the option of searching over the WorldLII database comprising AustLII (Australasian Legal Information Institute), BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute), CanLII (Canadian Legal Information Institute), PacLII (Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute) and HKLII (Hong Kong Legal Information Institute). ********************************************************************** NEW LEGISLATION "SAARC Law Pakistan" See http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/3084.html "Laws and Regulations" (Iceland) See http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/52413.html "Privacy Legislation" See http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/274.html ********************************************************************** OTHER NEW AND UPDATED MATERIALS INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW>>TERRORISM This new category was added to reflect current world events. It features many links and resources on terrorism related issues and covers legislation, treaties, articles as well as research centres. See http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/52853.html FINLAND New legislation and government sites have been added to the Finnish directory on World Law/DIAL. Subject directories were also expanded and now includes Banking & Finance, Military Law, Transport, Media & Communications, Health & Medicine, Social Welfare & Services, Women & the Law, Industrial Relations & Labor Law, Environment, Procurement, Travel & Tourism, Consumer Protection, Resources Law and Primary Industry. See http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/2073.html ********************************************************************* LAW AND POLICY REFORM WOMEN & THE LAW "Women and the Law Web Resources" Contains links to key legislation, courts and cases, government bodies, organisations, treaties, publications, e-journals and other Web gateways. Most of the links are to Australian sites. See http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/53182.html ********************************************************************* FEATURED WEBSITE INDIA>>LEGISLATION "Laws" Contains full text of many Indian legislation. Subjects include banking law, consumer protection, corporate law, criminal and motor accident law, tax law, environment law, family law, intellectual property, insurance, labour law and more. See http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/2042.html ********************************************************************** RESEARCH TIPS Searching from World Law Every catalog page now gives the user four choices of search scope. 'All World Law' is now the default search option, as this gives the broadest search results, It searches over all pages from websites in the catalog that World Law has been able to index. Users who wish to do a narrower search must choose the second option which limits the scope of the search to those sites listed on or below the page from which the search is sent. For example, where the search is from the World Law>>Categories>>Legislation page, if the second search option is selected 'Only Legislation', the search will cover all legislation from any country that is listed. If the search was from the World Law>>Categories>>Countries>>New Zealand page, it would only search over those sites related to New Zealand law. Option three is now a search over WorldLII - databases of legislation and caselaw from AustLII, BAILII, CanLII, PacLII and HKLII. The fourth new option in the search interface on every catalog page allows the user to search 'Law on Google'. In order to make it easier for World Law users to search Google effectively, AustLII has implemented automatic translation of World Law searches to Google searches so that the search syntax of the World Law search is converted into the search syntax of a Google search and a list of law words is automatically added to this search to help ensure that Google only retrieves law-related material. The presentation of World Law search results has also changed, to make them more user-friendly and informative, clarifying further whether the results are from World Law categories or actual web documents and highlighting the homepage of the website on which a document has been found, in case the original page has moved. ********************************************************************** DIAL TRAINING PAKISTAN TRAINING In-country training is planned for January 2002. Details will be posted in DIAL News as soon as they are finalised. GUIDED TOUR AND EXERCISES Did you know that DIAL now has an online User Guide & Guided Tour, and a set of Online Exercises? They can help you master World Law/DIAL and internet legal research. See http://www.austlii.edu.au/dial/training/ ********************************************************************** DIAL USERS - COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS WELCOME Please feel free to distribute DIAL News to interested colleagues. Please try to avoid unsanctioned cross-postings to news groups or email lists. DIAL News will be posted to relevant Internet lists from AustLII. We would like to receive comments and suggestions for improvements to the Newsletter via the DIAL User List. Remember if you have any questions about legal research using DIAL, or other questions about legal research using the Internet, you can send your questions to the DIAL User List and the DIAL Team will do its best to assist. DIAL Users can participate in the development of World Law/DIAL by forwarding new legal websites to add to any of the source, subject or country pages either through the DIAL User list or by clicking on 'Add a Link' at the top of World Law pages. Past issues of DIAL News are located at http://www.austlii.edu.au/dial/news/ ********************************************************************** TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE DIAL USER LIST See http://www.austlii.edu.au/dial/userlist.html The DIAL Team See http://www.austlii.edu.au/dial/team.html END OF DIAL NEWS ================