[Ads-l] News: Harvard digitizing its entire collection of U.S. case law

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is news of an important new legal and linguistic database under
construction. The accompanying video shows pages being cut from
bindings.

The non-destructive Google Books approach seems to be superior, in my
opinion. If you have any sway with the Harvard digitizers please let
them know. (Of course, the video may be inaccurate, and the digitizers
may think they have the best approach.)

Website: today.law.harvard.edu
Article: Harvard Law School Launches “Free the Law” Project with Ravel
Law To Digitize US Case Law, Provide Free Access
Date: October 29, 2015

Short link:   http://bit.ly/1XIsP0T

http://today.law.harvard.edu/harvard-law-school-launches-free-the-law-project-with-ravel-law-to-digitize-us-case-law-provide-free-access/

[Begin excerpt]
Harvard Law School has announced that, with the support of Ravel Law,
a legal research and analytics platform, it is digitizing its entire
collection of U.S. case law, one of the largest collections of legal
materials in the world, and that it will make the collection available
online, for free, to anyone with an Internet connection.

The "Free the Law" initiative will provide open, wide-ranging access
to American case law for the first time in United States history.
"Driving this effort is a shared belief that the law should be free
and open to all," said Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow. "Using
technology to create broad access to legal information will help
create a more transparent and more just legal system."
[End excerpt]

Garson

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