Final Version of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) Now Available

The Uniform Law Commission (also known as the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws) recently released the final version of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA).

The prefatory note and comments accompanying the uniform act explain each section, including what state’s requirements are to ensure that, when legal material is published only in an electronic format, the material is designated as official and is authenticated, preserved and made permanently available to the public.

AALL is now working to enact UELMA. Stay tuned to learn how you can advocate for UELMA in your state.

White House, GPO and NARA Collaborate on Release of XML Version of Federal Register

On Monday, the White House announced the official launch of the XML version of the Federal Register (FR), now available from 2000 to the present through GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), the Federal Register Web site and Data.gov. Access to the XML will allow third parties to manipulate the government data in innovative ways, and we applaud the White House, the Government Printing Office and the National Archives and Records Administration’s Office of the Federal Register (OFR) for making this exciting development possible.

There are important distinctions between the XML versions available on FDsys and Data.gov. Data.gov is limited to full-year XML downloads, while FDsys offers the ability to quickly and easily download the Federal Register by day, month or year. By providing these options, FDsys may better fit user needs.

In addition, FDsys also provides access to the official, digitally signed PDF version of the Federal Register, in addition to the XML.

We were pleased to see that a new disclaimer has been added to the description for all of the FR datasets and tools on Data.gov explaining this important distinction:

The current XML data set is not yet an official format of the Federal Register. Only the PDF and Text versions have legal status as parts of the official online format of the Federal Register. The XML-structured files are derived from SGML-tagged data and printing codes, which may produce anomalies in display. In addition, the XML data does not yet include image files. Users who require a higher level of assurance may wish to consult the official version of the Federal Register on FDsys.gov. The FDsys data set includes digitally signed Federal Register PDF files, which may be relied upon as evidence in a court of law. See: http://www.fdsys.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=FR

AALL has worked closely with GPO for many years to ensure that the public has permanent access to official, authentic online legal information, and we have strongly supported the development of FDsys. We applaud GPO for its leadership in authenticating the online version.

[Posted by Mary Alice Baish and Emily Feldman]

When is the Law THE Law?

On Friday, July 31, 2009, AALL Government Relations Office Director Mary Alice Baish participated in a CLE program during the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting in Chicago, “When is a Law THE Law? Why Authenticity and Quality Matter.” Catherine Sanders Reach, Director of the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center, moderated the panel, which also included Denley Chew, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s counsel, and Dr. Janice Hyde, Director of the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) at the Law Library of Congress. AALL, the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, and the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center were co-sponsors of the program.

Mary Alice’s presentation summarized the findings of AALL’s 2007 State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources and our national leadership on the authentication and preservation of online legal information. She also provided a quick update on progress made since the National Summit. For example, as we have previously reported, the Government Printing Office now digitally authenticates collections of Public and Private Laws and congressional bills.

Linda Edwards, legal affairs writer for the ABA, wrote a nice summary in the ABA Journal about the program and the difficulties of finding official, authentic primary legal resources on the Web.

Mary Alice’s slides are available on AALLNET, and a compiled version of the slides from all of the speakers is available on the ABA’s Web site.

[Posted by Emily Feldman]