October 6, 2011

Clicklaw WikibooksAn experiment in born-digital publishing

Drew Jackson, Courthouse Libraries BC

In the next 20 slides

• Courthouse Libraries BC context: what we do for the public

• Legal Help for British Columbians: a great guidebook that we wanted to enable more people to access

• Wikibooks: Why we choose to produce the Guide as a wikibook

• Demo: A few snapshots of the wikibook in action

• Next steps: What’s next for Clicklaw wikibooks

Courthouse Libraries context

We have a four pillar approach to meeting the public side of our mission…

• A website with plain language legal info

• A search tool to find assistance with legal problems

• Helping public libraries provide current legal information

• Helping the legal community and the public find and use legal information

LawStartBC: How we help the public find and use legal information

• 240 public libraries in BC

• Community-based, not restricted to “courthouse hours”

• First point of contact for information in their communities

• 35,000-40,000 questions with a legal dimension asked in public libraries every year

• Our LawMatters program recommends books, coordinates grants, provides training

More on our LawMatters program for public libraries

The plain language guide “Legal Help for British Columbians” was such a nice starting point for 30 common legal problems that we got copies for all public libraries in BC

Challenges

• Within a year, the Legal Help Guide needed updating

• Without institutional support, it was at risk (the guide was published by a lawyer more or less on his own)

• We put a PDF of the guide online, but it was

not very findable or usable online - at 75 pages, not easily searchable, external links not practical – and this info could be so helpful online!

• Yet the print continued to be highly valued in library settings where computer literacy can be a major issue

But as good as the Legal Help Guide was, there were some challenges

Core values

At Courthouse Libraries BC, our core values include innovation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing – which contributed to the solution we arrived at…

Why a Wikibook?

• We wanted a collaborative authoring environment to enable updating by many contributors

• We wanted an affordable tool: Mediawiki is an open source platform

• We wanted it to be easy for users: As it looks & feels like Wikipedia, the end user experience is familiar

• We wanted online and print versions: A wikibook is born-digital but can also produce print from the same source

We decided to turn the Legal Help Guide into a “wikibook”, using the Mediawiki platform that powers Wikipedia

We used the wiki platform to put the Guide online, opening up access to it

We recruited a dozen lawyers and other subject matter experts to be contributors & reviewers

Because we are using the same platform that powers Wikipedia (although our own install of the platform), it offers a familiar experience for end users

Various ways to navigate within the Guide, including searching

As the guide is now on a wiki, it can include external links to key resources

And we’ve integrated it with our Clicklaw HelpMap, to provide easy access to options for legal assistance

The wiki can be updated collaboratively over the Internet by multiple contributors

The wiki’s strong version comparison tools support collaboration, transparency

The wiki platform’s “book extension” enables us to assemble wiki pages into a single PDF file that can then be printed

Creative Commons

We’re making the Guide available under a Creative Commons license, which provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work - on conditions of your choice.

A sign Creative Commons has gone mainstream: It’s an option when you upload a video to YouTube

Next Steps

• Updating the Legal Help Guide (4th edition, current to Fall 2012), using the wiki platform

• Investigating print-on-demand options

• Supporting People’s Law School in experimenting with the wiki platform

• Working with Vancouver lawyer JP Boyd to migrate his outstanding family law website onto the wiki platform

Clicklaw wikibooks, at wiki.clicklaw.bc.ca