Library & Information Services provides service through the Barristers’ Library in Halifax, which is the operational hub of a centralized library system that includes thirteen county barristers’ libraries located throughout the province, as well as satellite collections housed at the Kings County Barristers’ Library in Kentville and the Simon J. Khattar, Q.C. Memorial Barristers’ Library in Sydney.

In addition to the physical libraries and their print collections, Library & Information Services provides reference and research assistance, document delivery and interlibrary loan service, research and resource guides, electronic and online services, and training to the membership. Library & Information Services strives to provide as much information as possible to members’ computer desktops in accordance with the delivery service model outlined in the Library Services Committee’s Report to Bar Council.

• The Barristers’ Library in Halifax has an extensive reference collection, which includes civil procedure rules, legislative material, legal encyclopedias and abridgments, forms and precedents services, case report series, as well as traditional reference sources, such as dictionaries and directories.

• A large textbook collection is housed at the Barristers’ Library in Halifax, including many frequently-updated loose-leaf services. Duplicate copies of the most current and frequently-used textbooks are included in the Barristers’ Library’s reserve collection, as well as the satellite collections housed at the Kings County Barristers’ Library in Kentville and the Simon J. Khattar, Q.C. Memorial Barristers’ Library in Sydney.

• The Barristers’ Library in Halifax includes a legal periodicals and journals collection.

• Library & Information Services has created a number of online databases which are freely accessible to anyone with access to the World Wide Web.

• Free access to WestlaweCarswell’s LawSource is provided to members at the Barristers’ Library in Halifax, as well as in the county libraries.

• Research and resource guides have been created to assist members with using the collections and resources.

• Library & Information Services can assist members in locating material not available in its collections through its document delivery and interlibrary loan services.

• Library & Information Services’ staff provides reference and research assistance to members to meet all of their information needs.

• Training is available to members to learn how to use any of the resources available through Library & Information Services.

• Computer terminals are available for members’ use at the Barristers’ Library in Halifax, as well as the county barristers’ libraries.]

The online catalogues allow searching of the collections of the Barristers’ Library in Halifax, the remote collections, as well as the collections of the thirteen county barristers’ libraries. Use the Textbooks/Treatises Catalogue to search for textbooks, and the Serials Holdings Catalogues to search for reference material, case reporters, magazines, and journals.

The most frequently used database is Law News Online , which is a collection of full-text, Nova Scotia decisions, primarily from the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. New decisions are loaded into the database as they are received from the courts, and older decisions are added on an ongoing basis. Please read the Coverage of Database note for the correct coverage information before conducting research.

The Legal Links database provides access to legal information on the World Wide Web. Access to the annotated links is provided through a browsing list of general search topics, or by subject or keyword searching.

The Secondary Sources database provides access to a wide range of secondary material, including papers presented at Society-sponsored conferences, articles published in The Society Record and Nova Scotia Law News, as well as some unpublished material written by members of the profession.

Best Practices is a database that combines an online version of Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct: A Handbook for Lawyers in Nova Scotia with supporting additional resources, including ethics rulings and advice, guidelines and precedents, discipline decisions, and further reading.

Minimum system requirements for using the databases created and maintained by Library & Information Services include Internet Explorer 6.0 and the Acrobat Reader program for viewing PDF documents.