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Sixth National Court
Technology Conference
(CTC6)
September 14-16, 1999Los Angeles Convention
Center
Best Practicesin Delivering
Court Informationto the Public
902
People v. Court Website
Fails to deliver useful information in useable formats
Improve Your Website
ReviewReview
RefocusRefocus
RefineRefine
Cheryl Nyberg
•Law librarian•Twenty years of experience
•Author, witness, daily user of the Web
American Association of Law Libraries
•5,000 members
•www. aallnet.org
Thurgood Marshall
Only real source of a judge’s power . . . is the respect of the people.
Improve Public Trust & Confidence
Improve communications
Become more
inclusive
Simplifyprocedures
Public Internet Access
•26% of U.S. households
•33% of Americans•760 new households per hour
Review
•What is the purpose of the website?
•Who is the audience for the website?
Grade A Website Goal
To delivery timely and useful court information in convenient and useable formats to all citizens.
Brand X Website Goal
To provide selected court information in original formats to attorneys using the latest version of IE5.
Grade A vs. Brand X
•New opinions posted as released by the courts
•Opinions posted irregularly, as the web-master has time
Grade A vs. Brand X
•Full range of useful infor-mation: opinions, forms, rules, etc.
•Selected documents, hit or miss
Grade A vs. Brand X
•Search by name, subject, keyword, date, docket number
•Arranged by date of decision only
Grade A vs. Brand X
•ASCII, HTML & other formats that don’t require additional software
•Word-processed, PDF or other formats requiring viewers
Grade A vs. Brand X
•Text-only option
•Early browser compatible
•No text-only option
•Requires latest browser
Grade A vs. Brand X
•Law for the layperson is jargon-free
•Glossary defines legal terms
•Legalese abounds
•No material for the lay-person
Which website does the Court of Public Opinion
find guilty?
Review Actions
•Write website mission statement & audience
•Secure agreement from all affected court staff
•Post on the website FAQ
From Review to Refocus
•Content•Coverage•Currency•Constancy•Contact
Content Is King
A website with poor content is a royal pain!
Don’t Post
Items that would jeopardize personal privacy or court security
From Review to Refocus
•Content•Coverage•Currency•Constancy•Contact
Coverage of Opinions
•Only slip opinions
•Mid-1990s•Historical
Oklahoma Is OK!•Supreme, 1957
• Civil App., 1968
•Criminal App., 1943
Robert H. Jackson
No books . . . which probably accounts for the high quality of early opinions.
Court Partners
Law schools/libraries in FL, IN, KS, NJ & SCLaw schools/libraries in FL, IN, KS, NJ & SC
Bar associationsin IA, MI, RI & SDBar associationsin IA, MI, RI & SD
From Review to Refocus
•Content•Coverage•Currency•Constancy•Contact
Currency
From Review to Refocus
•Content•Coverage•Currency•Constancy•Contact
Broken Links
•May 1999 Article includes links to 94 external websites
•Aug. 1999 10 of 94 links are broken. Failure rate = 10 %
Constancy
I solemnly swear to resist gratuitous website rearrange-ment.
From Review to Refocus
•Content•Coverage•Currency•Constancy•Contact
Contact
Recap
•ReviewMission statementAudience
Recap, cont’d
•Refocus Content Coverage Currency Constancy Contact
Helen Keller
“Great and noble [are] the tiny pushes of each honest worker. “
Refine
Arrangement Appearance
Formats Accessibility
Arrangement
Take off your blinders!
Think Out of the Box
•By subject•By document type
•By user
Formats
•ASCII & HTML•Word-processed•Graphical (PDF)•Databases•Compressed (zipped)
HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange
Format Rules
Appropriate Notify
Link Consistent
Accessibility
W3C
World Wide Web Consortium
www.w3c.org
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, May 1999
Accessibility Guidelines
AlternativesNot only
colorProper
markup
Clarify usage
Graceful tables
Gracefultechnology
Usercontrol
W3C Guidelines, cont’d
Embeddedinterfaces
Device-independence
Interimsolutions
W3Cguidelines
Context &orientation
Clearnavigation
Cleardocuments
DOJ, 1996
Covered entities under the ADA are required . . . to offer communications through accessible means.
Accessibility Don’ts
Mission statement & audience
Content
Coverage
Currency
Constancy
Contact
Arrangement
Appearance
Formats
Accessibility
10 Elements
What’s Ahead?•Content•Quick fixes•Deficiencies•Plan, prioritize & delegate
•Do it!
Changing Technology
•Deploy selectively & carefully
•Embrace new technology that benefits all users
Bobby
www.cast.org/bobby
AALL & AELIC
www.aallnet.org/committee/infotek/aelicweb/index.html
CTC6 Lab Time
Thursday12-2
James Madison
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.
Sixth National Court Technology Conference
(CTC6)