[Prodev] Online access to legal information

[Lehmann, Vibeke DOC]

I am the library consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and
also the current Chair of ALA/ASCLA's Library Services to Prisoners Forum.
Having been away for the office for some time, I'm just now joining this
interesting discusion.
 
As was alluded to in an earlier posting, the WI Dept. of Corrections has
indeed over the last year been researching and testing new technology
options for meeting its requirement of providing access to the courts; we
have been looking for a secure and cost effective way of providing online
access to the mandated legal materials - and it seems that we have found it
: through the use of an Internet appliance (about $500) which takes the
place of a PC and connects to a customized vendor URL with no links to any
other Internet sites.  Our technology folks have tested this technology with
our DOC ultra-secure firewall and have found that it meets all security
requirements and standards.
 
We have been working with two vendors on the customized content of the
database and have been negotiating for favorable pricing.  It looks like we
could save about 60% annually on the upkeep costs of our current
subscriptions to CD-ROMs (with expensive simultaneous user licenses) and
print collections.  A great selling point in these tough economic times!
 
This new "online law library" has not yet achieved final DOC approval, due
to our change in administration and certain other factors, but we have held
many demonstrations and briefings and have received favorable response from
security directors, local IT coordinators, the WI Department of Justice, and
most wardens.  It has been quite a challenge to educate DOC staff that we
are NOT providing inmates with access to the Internet!!
 
I am hoping to achieve final aproval for this new service model very soon -
we just have to give our new DOC Secretary a chance to get settled in and
briefed on outstanding issues. 
 
I do have more information on the technology we have been testing and can
provide  details to individuals upon request. 
 
This proposal is not yet a done deal - but it looks promising!
 
 
Vibeke Lehmann