1. Clicklaw Wikibooks
An experiment in born-digital publishing
Drew Jackson, Courthouse Libraries BC October 6, 2011

2. 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

3. Courthouse Libraries context
We have a four pillar approach
to meeting the public side of
our mission…

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

5. More on our LawMatters
program for public libraries
• 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

6. 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

7. Challenges But as good as the Legal Help Guide
was, there were some 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

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

9. Why a Wikibook? We decided to turn
the Legal Help Guide
into a “wikibook”,
• We wanted a collaborative authoring using the Mediawiki
environment to enable updating by platform that powers
many contributors Wikipedia
• 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

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

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

12. 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

13. 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

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

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

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

17. 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.

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

19. 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

20. Clicklaw wikibooks, at
wiki.clicklaw.bc.ca