FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES OFFER FREE ACCESS TO COURT E-RECORDS
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) have entered into a two-year pilot project with the Administrative Office of the U. S. Courts (AOUSC) to provide access to its PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) service.
The PACER system can provide remote access to case and docket information from the Federal Courts via the Internet. Records include information from the Appellate, District and Bankruptcy Courts. Users of PACER are able to access information about a case including the names of all the parties, judges and attorneys involved in the case, case history and status as well as many of the documents submitted by the parties to the court.
Seventeen depositories, representing diverse types and sizes of libraries as well as different geographic locations, were selected to take part in the PACER pilot. With these libraries promoting the PACER service to the public, we anticipate the pilot will determine that Federal depository library access to PACER expands usage to those who currently do not have it available to them or would be inhibited by going to a court house to use the service.
The Federal depository libraries participating in the PACER pilot are:
* Alaska State Court Law Library (Alaska)
* Sacramento County Public Law Library, (California)
* San Bernardino County Law Library (California)
* Library of Congress/Law Library of Congress (District of
Columbia)
* Nova Southeastern University Law Library (Florida)
* 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Library (Illinois)
* Northern Kentucky University Steely Library/Chase Law Library
(Kentucky)
* Portland Public Library (Maine)
* University of Michigan Law School Library (Michigan)
* Wayne State University Arthur Neef Law Library, (Michigan)
* Rutgers University, Newark Law Library (New Jersey)
* New Mexico Supreme Court Law Library (New Mexico)
* Fordham University School of Law Leo T. Kissam Memorial Library (New York)
* State Library of Ohio (Ohio)
* Rogers State University Stratton Taylor Library (Oklahoma)
* University of Tennessee College of Law Joel A. Katz Law Library (Tennessee)
* Lee College Library (Texas)
The Government Printing Office thanks these libraries, and the other Federal depository libraries that volunteered for the pilot project, for their enthusiasm to provide PACER to their users. For more information about the project please contact Cindy Etkin at cetkin@gpo.gov.