Massachusetts Legal Inventory: A Work in Progress What Have We Learned Thus Far Michelle Pearse, Harvard Law School Library Joan Shear, Boston College Law Library Law.gov Massachusetts Harvard Law School June 17, 2010

Previous AALL reports State-by-State Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Information 2003 State-by-State Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Information State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources 2007 State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources State-by-State Report on Authentication Update State-by-State Report on Authentication Update AALL Principles and Core Values Concerning Public Information on Government Web Sites AALL Principles and Core Values Concerning Public Information on Government Web Sites National Summit on Authentication of Digital Legal Information in Chicago on April 20-21, 2007 National Summit on Authentication of Digital Legal Information in Chicago on April 20-21, 2007 National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) Drafting Committee on Authentication and Preservation of Electronic State Legal Materials

What are we looking at Scope of content Format Copyright assertions Terms of use Costs Digital authentication Permanent access Overall “access” issues

Overall impressions thus far Access to older material problematic Diffuse system, esp. for administrative materials Copyright thought to be a non-issue in Massachusetts; many notices; how do we parse things out?

Courts SJC/Mass App. Ct. decisions  Advance sheets for SJC Lower courts

Legislature General Laws of Massachusetts On web, current only Disclaimer Access issues

Executive Branch-regulations CMR/Mass. Register-no centralized place, $110 only access to electronic Building and Electrical codes-copyright issue, cross-reference to model professional code referenced standardsreferenced standards Older regs?

Agency decisions Most agency decisions only available for inspection, not published Agencies vary greatly Availability in print vs. web, commercial Tied into commercial publishers for older materials (print or online) Landlaw, Social Law Library Potential to look at scope of opinions in different sources?

Local laws selected major cities/towns, such as Cambridge, Boston, Quincy, Holyoke availability online and in print print generally still official; sometimes difficult to acquire; costs generally copyright notices in various places; inconsistent info. free, with disclaimers on Internet versions; out-of-date

Biggest commercial vendors West (official appellate decisions, official statutes, unofficial annotated statutes) Lexis (attorney discipline reports, alternative CMR) Landlaw Social Law Library

Volunteers? Other uses and categories for inventory?- cooperative collection development?