The following information is adapted from a presentation given by Cheryl Nyberg on "Best Practices in Delivering Court Information to the Public" at the National Association for Court Management's Symposium 2000, Meeting the Needs of a Multi-Cultural Society in the 21st Century.

• Organizations
• Publications and Reports
• Statistics
• Tools
• Ten Criteria for Building a Terrific Court Website
• What to Do First

Organizations

• AALL Access to Electronic Legal Information Committee, http://www.aallnet.org/committee/aelic/index.html

• American Association of Law Libraries, http://www.aallnet.org

• GovPub electronic discussion group. Local and State Government Information /  Documents on the Internet; practical and policy issues. To subscribe, send the following message to listserv@listserv.nodak.edu: subscribe govpub Your Name

Publications and Reports

• National Conference on Public Trust and Confidence in the Justice System, http://www.ncsc.dni.us/PTC/Ptc.htm

• U.S. Justice Dep't, Civil Rights Division, ADA accessibility of state and local government websites, Sept. 9, 1996, http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/foia/tal712.txt

• World Wide Web Consortium, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/

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Statistics

• David Lake, "Access Up, Divide Shrinks," The Standard, June 19, 2000, http://www.thestandard.com/research/metrics/display/0,2799,16072,00.html

• U.S. Commerce Dep't, Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn99/

Tools

• Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF documents, http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

• Adobe Acrobat conversion from PDF to HTML, http://access.adobe.com/adv_form.html

• Bobby, Center for Applied Special Technology (for checking accessibility of a website), http://www.cast.org/bobby/

• Hotbot, http://hotbot.lycos.com/

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Ten Criteria for Building a Terrific Court Website

1. Mission and audience
   Focus on serving the needs of users in the legal community and the general public.

2. Content
   The more the better!

3. Coverage
   The more the better!

4. Currency
   Direct users to new material and popular documents. Date all documents.

5. Constancy
   Rearrange only when absolutely necessary.

6. Contact
   Provide email links and subscription services. Survey your users

7. Arrangement
   Arrange material by type, subject, or user.

8. Appearance
   Design a clean, clear, and effective presence.

9. Formats
   Use HTML whenever possible. Provide links to free viewer software for word-processed or graphical formats.

10. Accessibility
    Test the accessibility of your site with Bobby. Eliminate barriers to access for visually impaired and other handicapped users.

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What to Do First

1. Add content.

2. Make quick fixes.

3. Determine deficiencies; plan a course of action; assign responsibilities.

4. Do it.

5. Regularly review the website as users' needs, court information, and browser technology evolves.

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