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(8) NEJL Websites
The NEJL has started two websites and regards both as crucial
to its mission. The Internet provides the primary link to many of our potential
users in the United States and our only link to the rest of the world.
We opened the first of the websites in 1998. It
operates on American University’s main webserver and can be found at http://nejl.wcl.american.edu.
Even in this rather early stage of development, this website offers a number of
useful features.
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The “Virtual Wall of Justice” mentioned above.
Visitors to the NEJL Website can view a screen listing the eight awards
and a brief description of what outstanding contribution each recognizes.
By clicking on one of the awards the visitor is taken to another screen
listing the names of all the persons who have won that award. In the
future, visitors to the NEJL Website will be able to click on an honoree’s
name and view a brief description of the exploits which earned him or her
the award.
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“Finding Guides” for some of the materials in the
Archives. These “finding guides” are like catalogs identifying all the
letters, memos, or other materials a given individual or institution
donated. A visitor can search these “finding guides” to locate items
that might be helpful to his or her research.
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Background information about the National Equal Justice
Library itself including a brief history of its creation, a list of board
members, a statement of its mission, and a description of its programs.
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A list of all the foundations, law firms, lawyers, and
others who have donated funding to the National Equal Justice Library and
information about making future financial donations.
In 2000, the NEJL added a second website which
operates on an independent commercial Webserver. This website is easier to
update and has more sophisticated software allowing it to offer features
unavailable on the first website. This second website can be found at http://www.equaljusticeupdate.org.
About half of this new website’s several hundred pages of
content appears in its International Legal Aid Collections section.
This section includes comparative statistics about legal aid programs in
different countries, important judicial opinions from national and
international courts, descriptive and analytical information about legal aid
programs around the world, etc.
The rest of the new website includes some special features
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Notable Quotes — a compilation of quotations
about equal justice, and often the lack of same, from political leaders,
judges, leading lawyers, philosophers, and others.
Reggie Alumni News — features the 1998 “Reggie
Reunion” held at the National Equal Justice Library and reminiscences by
former Reggies, along with an online form allowing Reggies to join the 1500 of
their colleagues who already have registered with the NEJL.
Book Notes — brief reviews
of books on the subject of equal access to justice.
Awards Program — information about the NEJL
awards program for outstanding books and articles on the subject of equal
justice, including the eligibility and selection criteria along with the names
of awardees and the members of the independent selection committee.
Annual Report — an online version of this report.
The NEJL’s first website added over 50 pages of content
during 2000 and the new website started with over 500 pages and is expanding
at a constant rate. During the coming year we also hope to employ a consultant
to upgrade the sophistication of both sites.
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