An overview of my research into the publication of legal information by state governments.

1. Photo: CC BY https://www.flickr.com/photos/99472898@N00/3573458354/
SURVEY OF STATE PUBLISHED LEGAL
INFORMATION
Sarah Glassmeyer, JD MLS
Research Fellow, Harvard Library Innovation Lab

2. Hi.

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

4. Why?

5. Access to
Information
is
Access to Justice.

6. Photo CC BY-NC-ND https://www.flickr.com/photos/clement127/

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

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

9. How?

10. Photo: CC BY https://www.flickr.com/photos/kwl/

11. Total sites visited:
• 51 Code sites
• 50 Regulation sites
• 105 Court websites
17-18 Data Points per website

12. Major
Conclusions

13. Currently impossible to do anything
but the most basic legal research
using government provided
websites.

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

15. Photo: CCY BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/54459164@N00/

16. What do we mean
when we say
“Access to Law”?

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

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

19. CC BY-NC-ND https://www.flickr.com/photos/stavos52093/

20. CC BY-ND https://www.flickr.com/photos/matijagrguric/

21. What are the
Impediments to
Access?

22. Context
CC BY-NC-ND https://www.flickr.com/photos/clement127/

23. CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/ntr23/
Cost

25. Citation

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

27. 7%
88%
2% 3%
Case Law
Official
Unofficial
Mixed
Unknown
Officialness of Online Version
of Law
6%
90%
4%
Code
Official
Unofficial
Unknown
20%
60%
20%
Regulations
Official
Unoffical
Unknown

28. Corporate Control
Photo CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/

31. 92%
3%1% 4%
All Online Publishing
State
Lexis
State, Lexis
State, West
24%
10%
65%
1%
Official Print
State
Lexis
West
n/a
Case Law Publishing

32. Code Publishing
82%
14%
2% 2%
Online Publication
State
Lexis
Conway
Lawriter
42%
35%
19%
4%
Official Print
State
Lexis
West
Lexis/West

33. Regulation Publishing
90%
4% 4% 2%
Online Publishing
State
Lexis
West
Lawriter
68%
32%
Official Print
State
Other/Unknown

34. Copyright
Photo: CC CY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/joachim_s_mueller/

35. Copyright Notifications on Webpages
43%
57%
Case Law
Yes
No 53%
47%
Code
yes
no
30%
70%
Regulations
Yes
No

36. NCSL 2011 Survey for Codes
21%
47%
21%
11%
Copyright Claims on Code
No Copyright Claim
State Claims
State Claims Partial
Shared with
Publisher

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

38. http://copyright.lib.harvard.edu/states/
33 official state codes are annotated.

39. http://copyright.lib.harvard.edu/states/
33 official state codes are annotated.
3 of the annotated codes are published by the state.

40. Content/Archives

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

42. Types of Archives
29%
18%
53%
Code
Current year
only
Code
Session Law
21%
13%
66%
Regulations
Current year
only
Code
Register

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

44. 8%
85%
7%
Case Law
html
pdf
mixed
89%
7%
4%
Code
html
pdf
mixed
38%
30%
32%
Regulations
html
pdf
mixed

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

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

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

48. 43%
57%
Case Law
Disclaimer
No
Disclaimer
35%
65%
Code
Disclaimer
No
Disclaimer
22%
78%
Regulations
Disclaimer
No Disclaimer

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

50. 8%
92%
Case Law
Restriction
No
Restriction
16%
84%
Code
Restriction
No
Restriction
22%
78%
Regulations
Restriction
No
Restriction

51. Cataloging
Photo CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/eldave/

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

53. Search

54. 16%
84%
Case Law
None
Available
2%
53%
45%
Code
None
Basic
Advanced
26%
50%
24%
Regulations
None
Basic
Advanced

55. Impediment Wholesale Retail
Context 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

56. Further Questions
and Thoughts…

57. It is possible that current
government publishing efforts
are doing more harm than good.

58. What are the actual legal research
needs of the public, and what does
an effective and sufficient legal
information collection look like?

59. Should states outsource electronic
legal information publication –
maybe even designate these
electronic versions official?

60. Do we want our states to
concentrate on retail or wholesale
publication of legal information (or
both)?

61. What is the role of libraries in all of
this?

62. Usability and UX issues abound.

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

64. Other Things I’m
working on…

65. Topic Modelling
Bug Tracking
Random Acts of Freeing the Law
Project X

66. Thank you!