By Alan Kilpatrick
In support of 2025 Saskatchewan Access to Justice Week, the Saskatchewan Access to Legal Information Initiative created an Accessing Legal Information in Saskatchewan Infographic highlighting how people in Saskatchewan access and obtain legal information.
People rely on access to legal information to access justice. Legal Information is general information about the law. Legal information can help people learn about the law, their legal problems, ways of resolving legal problems, and legal rights and responsibilities.
By Alan Kilpatrick
The Saskatoon and Regina public libraries are hosting free Law Fairs The Saskatoon and in conjunction with Saskatchewan Access to Justice Week (Oct 27-31, 2025) to help people learn about their legal rights/responsibilities and connect with legal information and support. Save the date and spread the word!
Saskatoon Public Library, Frances Morrison Central Library
Thursday, October 23, 2025 | 1:00 – 6:00 PM
Regina Public Library, Central Adult Library
Saturday, November 1, 2025 | 12:00 – 5:00 PM
Attendees can expect:
Presentations: Legal experts discussing common legal topics
Help Sessions: One-on-one support from lawyers on family law and wills and estates
Tradeshows: Local and provincial organizations sharing legal resources and services
The Law Fairs are free and open to everyone!
By Alan Kilpatrick
Check out the latest issue of the SALI newsletter
The Saskatchewan Access to Legal Information Initiative (SALI) helps legal information providers connect the public with legal information, legal assistance options, and community support. Stay informed with our newsletter.
SALI’s Fall 2025 newsletter issue highlights:
Access to Justice Week: Attend free events that engage communities in conversations about justice.
New Options for Legal Assistance: Read about a new category of legal professional in Saskatchewan.
Access Legal Information Infographic: Learn how people in Saskatchewan access legal information.
Updated Family Law Handbook: Order free copies of the updated Family Law Handbook.
Share our newsletter with your staff, colleagues, and teams or encourage them to sign up directly link. To learn more about SALI, please visit our webpage.
By Alan Kilpatrick
Public use of GenAI tools is commonplace, and GenAI outputs are increasingly integrated into digital technologies, including GenAI summaries at the top of every internet search. It is important for the public to understand how to use them when looking for legal information. The Saskatchewan Access to Legal Information Initiative (SALI) has created a new guide to help support the informed use of GenAI tools: Using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Tools to Obtain Legal Information.
GenAI creates new content (text, images, audio, and video) by analyzing large datasets and predicting patterns. It does not think independently but generates outputs based on learned structures and predictions. While GenAI tools have the potential to increase the accessibility of information and assist the public with navigating legal information, concerns about accuracy, currency, hallucinations (made-up information), and privacy exist.
Legal Information providers, such as libraries, service agencies, and community organizations, can help the public by:
• Explaining how GenAI tools work
• Outlining the risks of using GenAI-generated legal information
• Identifying signs of credible legal information
• Guiding the public to reliable legal sources
GenAI technology is changing rapidly, and the guide will be updated as technology evolves. Contact SALI at sali_project@usask.ca for more guidance.
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.
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