Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act
Another note-worthy item from this past summer is the approval of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) by the Uniform Law Commission, also known as the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL), at its annual meeting in July. A uniform law is a legislative proposal drafted by NCCUSL, a non-governmental body. Once approved, state legislatures are urged to enact the law, thus developing a uniformity of law across the states (think Uniform Commercial Code). UELMA takes an outcomes based approach, and requires that official electronic legal material be authenticated, preserved, and accessible for use by the public. For purposes of the Act, legal material includes the state constitution, session laws, codified laws or statutes, and state agency rules with the effect of law. States may also choose to include other types of legal material such as court rules, judicial decisions, and administrative decisions. NCCUSL’s approval of the UELMA is a particularly exciting development, full of possibility. The extent of the impact will, of course, depend on what happens now in the 50 states. Librarians, library associations, and all supporters of permanent public access to legal information should pay attention, make their voices heard on the state level, and work with their legislators. In my view, UELMA is a positive step toward permanent public access to state law. For more, see the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act committee page, which includes approved text, drafts, and issue memoranda. Continue reading
Archives.com Now Providing Access to Some U.S. Census Material and Pledges $5 Million for Future Digitization Projects
Archives.com properties include Fold3.com (formerly Footnote.com) and NewspaperArchive.com. Archives.com is owned by Inflection.com. From an Archives.com Blog Post: Today Archives.com, the web's most affordable and easy-to-use subscription-based family history site, announces the addition of the U.S. Federal Census, the single most valuable collection of U.S. historical records. The U.S. Census collections were made available by FamilySearch International, the world's largest genealogy organization, as part of a joint effort to introduce more records to family historians worldwide. In conjunction with the Census effort, Archives will also embark on a joint project with FamilySearch to digitize tens-of-millions of additional historical records, the majority of which are not currently online. Archives has pledged a minimum of five million dollars to this important project which will positively impact the entire community. [Clip] Archives has integrated the full set of U.S. Federal Population Census indexes from 1790 to 1930 consisting of over 500 million names along with 3 million images from census years 1850, 1870, and 1900. In the near future, the full set of census images will be accessible. Leading the effort is former FamilySearch veteran Anne Roach AG®, CGSM as Director of Content Development. Read the Complete Announcement See Also: Archives.com U.S. Census Info Page They currently provide access to approx. 54 million records and 10 million images. Fyi, a one year subscription to Archive.com costs $39.95. They offer a one-week free trial. See Also: For a Limited Time, 1940 U.S. Census Will Be Free on Ancestry.com Continue reading
New Database: UN Office on Drugs and Crime and World Bank Group Launch New Anti-Corruption Legal Library With Legislation From
From INFOdocket: The UNCAC Legal Library is a comprehensive database of anti-corruption and asset recovery legislation and jurisprudence from over 175 States, systematized in accordance with the requirements of the Convention. The Legal Library, which will be regularly updated, identifies laws that have been successfully used to recover assets as well as barriers to asset recovery caused by inadequate or incompatible legal frameworks. This practical and user-friendly resource will aid countries as they design and improve their legal frameworks so that these are more conducive to the recovery of stolen assets. Finally, you'll find a link to background about the new TRACK (Tools and Resources for Anti-Corruption Knowledge) portal also from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Continue reading
AALL Government Relations Policy
Thank you, James, for the opportunity to guest blog. I look forward to sharing information and telling stories. We'll see how September unfolds. In July, the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Executive Board approved a new Government Relations Policy. The policy covers the dissemination of government information, as well as intellectual property, privacy, and preservation. I hope to blog about some of these issues in the future, but reading through revised policy, I was most pleased to see a new section (Section VII) on support for law libraries. AALL calls for adequate funding for the FDLP and state depository programs, as it always has, but there is a new emphasis on strong support for public law libraries, including state, courthouse, county, and local libraries. I've spent 20 years at an academic law library that is open to the public. We have a public mission, as a state institution and as a depository library. We provide reference services, and print and electronic collections to the public, which includes self-represented persons. But our primary purpose is to support the research and curricular needs of the University of Washington School of Law faculty and students. Although we serve many people without lawyers, it's the public law libraries of our state and region, most notably the King County Law Library, that are truly on the front lines of providing access to justice. These important, and often fragile, parts of our government and legal information ecosystem deserve strong support. Continue reading