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SURVEY OF STATE PUBLISHED LEGAL

INFORMATION

Sarah Glassmeyer, JD MLSResearch Fellow, Harvard Library Innovation Lab

Hi.

CC BY-SA-NC https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/

Why?

Access to Information

is Access to Justice.

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Photo: CY BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2893959

How?

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Total sites visited:• 51 Code sites• 50 Regulation sites• 105 Court websites

17-18 Data Points per website

Major Conclusions

Currently impossible to do anything but the most basic

legal research using government provided websites.

 

There exists (at least) 14 different types of hurdles in Access to Legal Information.

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What do we mean when we say

“Access to Law”?

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Photo: http://rebrick.lego.com/en-US/bookmark/rabbit-in-the-hat/tcyfdk

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What are the Impediments to

Access?

Context

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Cost

Citation

http://www.aallnet.org/mm/Advocacy/access/citation/neutralrules

8%

88%

2% 3%

Case Law

OfficialUnofficialMixedUnknown

Officialness of Online Version of Law

6%

90%

4%

Code

OfficialUnofficialUnknown

20%

60%

20%

Regulations

OfficialUnofficalUnknown

Corporate Control

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92%

3% 1%4%

All Online Publishing

StateLexisState, LexisState, West

23%

10%65%

1%

Official Print

StateLexisWestn/a

Case Law Publishing

Code Publishing

82%

14%

2%2%

Online Publication

StateLexisConwayLawriter

42%

35%

19%

4%

Official Print

StateLexisWestLexis/West

Regulation Publishing

90%

4% 4% 2%Online Publishing

StateLexisWestLawriter 6

8%

32%

Official Print

StateOther/Unknown

Copyright

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Copyright Notifications on Webpages

43%

57%

Case Law

YesNo

53%

47%

Code

yesno

30%

70%

Regulations

YesNo

NCSL 2011 Survey for Codes

21%

47%

21%

11%

Copyright Claims on Code

No Copyright ClaimState ClaimsState Claims PartialShared with Pub-lisher

http://copyright.lib.harvard.edu/states/

http://copyright.lib.harvard.edu/states/

33 official state codes are annotated.

http://copyright.lib.harvard.edu/states/

33 official state codes are annotated.3 of the annotated codes are published by the state.

Content/Archives

Ranges of archival materialsCase Law (earliest date available)• Range: 1778 – 2015• Median: 1997Code (earliest date available)• Range: 1839 – 2015• Median: 1994Regulations (earliest date available)• Range: 1956 – 2015• Median: 2000

Types of Archives

29%

18%

53%

Code

Current year onlyCodeSession Law

21%

13%66%

Regulations

Current year onlyCodeRegister

CC BY ND https://www.flickr.com/photos/warrenelsmore/

Container

8%

85%

7%

Case Law

htmlpdfmixed

89%

7%

3%

Code

htmlpdfmixed

38%

30%

32%

Regulations

htmlpdfmixed

Citators

Photo: CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixbymaia/

Currency

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/102040

Correctness

CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/

43%

57%

Case Law

DisclaimerNo Disclaimer

35%

65%

Code

DisclaimerNo Disclaimer

22%

78%

Regulations

DisclaimerNo Disclaimer

Control

Photo: CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/dunechaser/

8%

92%

Case Law

RestrictionNo Restriction

16%

84%

Code

RestrictionNo Restriction

22%

78%

Regulations

RestrictionNo Restriction

Cataloging

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CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/ejpphoto/

Conveyance

Search

16%

84%

Case Law

NoneAvailable

2%

53%45%

Code

NoneBasicAdvanced

26%

50%

24%

Regulations

NoneBasicAdvanced

Impediment Wholesale RetailContext X

Cost X X

Citation X

Corporate Control X X

Copyright X

Content X

Container X X

Citators X

Currency X X

Correctness X X

Control X

Cataloging X

Conveyance X

Search X

Further Questions and Thoughts…

It is possible that current government publishing

efforts are doing more harm than good.

What are the actual legal research needs of the public,

and what does an effective and sufficient legal information

collection look like?

Should states outsource electronic legal information publication – maybe even designate these electronic

versions official?

Do we want our states to concentrate on retail or

wholesale publication of legal information (or both)?

What is the role of libraries in all of this?

Usability and UX issues abound.

How many people are turning to pay law sites for self-help?

Other Things I’m working on…

Topic Modelling

Bug Tracking

Random Acts of Freeing the Law

Project X

Thank you!