PACER is the online access portal for “U.S. Appellate, District, and Bankruptcy court records and documents nationwide”.  Because the documents it provides are created by the federal judiciary, they are not copyrightable; because PACER is the only place to obtain these records, it is a critical link to those who need case information.  PACER also charges a per-page fee ($0.08 per page up to 30 pages in a specific document) for access.

RECAP (which is PACER spelled backwards) is a new, open source Firefox extension which appears to follow all the rules:  you access documents through PACER, paying all assessed fees, and you get your docuements.  RECAP, however adds two elements to the mix:

1. RECAP automatically uploads any document that is accessed by users of the extension to a public repository hosted by the Internet Archive.
2. RECAP will alert the user when a document they wish to access is available through the public repository.

On the surface, it may appear that people are conducting an end-run against the court’s system for providing documents.  However, a broader view strongly suggests that these documents are public, and that the PACER system is actually an exception in the realm of access to public records.

The Executive and Legislative branches of the federal government provide documents free to the user; this is an attempt to make the workings and decisions of the judiciary as public as the other branches.  RECAP is a fully legal means to provide information in a way that is the spirit of the law.

Further reading:

• The Case Against PACER
• Firefox Extension Liberates US Court Docs from Paywall
• Use RECAP to Bypass Court Document Paywall

A couple of news items that signal trends in the way the web will evolve:

Internet Explorer has lost a significant amount of market share recently. This is good news in a couple of ways.  First, it signals growing diversity among web browsers, and the people who use them.   This strengthens the concept of web standards, and encourages design that is browser agnostic.  The other way in which this is good news is that IE6 use has dropped below 10% and IE7 is heading that way as well.  Internet Explorer 8 is superior to either one, and it is great to see people upgrading.   There are also many fantastic browsers not made by Microsoft, including Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, and Opera.  Whichever you choose (and why limit yourself to just one?), make sure you are using the most current version.  Otherwise the only thing you aren’t missing out on is the security problems.

XHTML 2 will disappear at the end of this year.  That I think this is good might surprise those who know that I have been designing using versions of the XHTML standard since around 2005.  I like the separation of content from design, and some of the features of XHTML 2 look fantastic.  However, I think HTML 5 is going to take the internet by storm, and it is better to incorporate as many of the good features of XHTML 2 in HTML 5, eliminate the problematic issues, and let one standard guide the design of general web pages.  This requires that HTML 5 be as good as it looks.  I have high hopes for it.

It’s a post that is months old, but the information is just as useful:  Swiss Army Librarian has a guide for Using Firefox on Our Public Computers.

If you have computers that restore themselves to a pre-determined state upon reboot, I also recommend Zotero so that people can organize their research (though power users should customize their own version of FirefoxPortable.

found via the Innovative User’s Group (thanks Gus Calderon!)

Understanding the Web Browser Threat is an essay that details web users and the browsers they use.  The primary focus is on how current one’s browser version is, as opposed to evaluating one browser against others.

It is too little understood how dangerous using an older version of a browser can be for a user.  If you are using a current version of a browser, any of the main varieties will do, you will be much, much safer than using an older or unpatched version.

Check not only your own computers for this, but also your public access terminals.  Older browsers put all of your patrons at greater risk, as well as your library’s network.

My own recommendation:  Firefox (currently at version 3.01).  Not only has Firefox been quick to fix security issues, it has automatic updating built into the program.  It also works on any platform (as well as from a Flash Drive), so it is about as universal a program as you willl likely find.

thanks to Jessamyn for the link!