Acting Librarian: Diana Bergmark

• Provides legal source material and information for the Attorney General, Solicitor General, officers of the Department, legal officers from NSW government departments, members of the legal profession and law libraries.

Librarian: Lesley O’Loughlin

• Provides legal resources and information for the Courts, Commissions and Tribunals in the Law Courts Building. It is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and State governments.

Librarian: Yvonne Brown

• Provides library and information services through a network of libraries to Local Courts, the District Court, the Compensation Court, Industrial Relations Commission Library and the Land and Environment Court Library.

Acting Sheriff of NSW: Bruce Kelly

• Protects the NSW judicial system by providing court security and support services.
• Manages the jury system.
• Enforces lawful orders of the State’s courts and tribunals.

Director: Barbara Flett

• Operates state-wide court reporting, sound recording and transcript service to various Courts, Boards and Tribunals.

Reporting Services Branch (RSB) produced 829,433 pages of transcript during the year, providing comprehensive records of court proceedings for clients including members of the judiciary, the legal profession and the public.

Demand for services increased significantly during the reporting year as a result of the appointment of Acting Judges to address court delays. As a result, transcript services were provided at an average of 117 sittings every day compared with 105 per day for the previous three years. Demand for daily transcripts accounted for approximately 30 per cent of the workload. In cases where a transcript was not required on the same day, the RSB achieved an average turnaround of 14 days.

The RSB’s transcript database was expanded to include all Central Business District (CBD) District Court hearings. This followed the installation of new PC’s which were connected to the Department’s communications network.

In March 1999 the RSB completed a three-year program to retrain court reporters to use Computer Aided Transcript which has improved efficiency. 85 per cent of court reported transcripts are made using this new system, which is a 15 per cent increase.

Revenue from transcript sales increased slightly this year by $330,000 to $4,400,000. This may be due to the increased activity created by the appointment of additional judges.

The program to re-equip courts with more up-to-date sound recording equipment continued this year with priority being given to courthouses in country New South Wales. The re-equipment program was gradually extended to outer metropolitan courthouses and will continue to CBD locations as resources permit.

In other developments, the RSB replaced non-Y2K-compliant computers and completed a management restructure, integrating management structure for court and sound reporters. Implementation of the Department’s Performance Planning and Development System also commenced with branch managers, supervisors and administrative staff. The system will be extended to court and sound reporters during the next twelve months.


Supporting the day to day operation of the courts

The Office of the Sheriff continued to play a vital role in the day to day operation of NSW courts. During the reporting year, additional officers were deployed across New South Wales to improve court security. The new positions were principally focused on the highest risk locations, such as those dealing with large numbers of domestic violence and family law cases.

The Office developed a number of initiatives to improve general security. These including the establishment of two peak security forums: an inter-agency committee with representatives of major justice agencies and victims’ support groups; and an inter-departmental committee on policy and practices.

The Office also developed a comprehensive database and reporting protocol for all court security incidents, progressively expanding it to all court users including other government agencies, the judiciary, and court support groups. The information has assisted in risk management and resource allocation.

A number of site specific risk assessments of particular court locations were conducted during the year. These assessments used an advanced risk-assessment tool based on the Australian standard and tailored to the judicial environment.

The Office worked towards meeting the needs if staff in a number of ways during the year, including:

• Implementing an enhanced training and competency based re-certification program to ensure officers maintain and improve their skills in tactical and defensive tactics, officer survival and appropriate use of force;
• Establishing a new Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee to review current practices and recommend further improvements to the way that OH&S, workers’ compensation and officer safety issues are managed; and
• Developing a peer support program in partnership with Local Courts which included providing training to 25 Sheriff’s Officers on how to support their colleagues in the workplace.

The Law Courts Library produced two new publications during the reporting year - the Law Courts Library Bulletin, published every two months, and A Guide to the Rare Books Collection. The Library Guide and Basic Texts Location Guide were revised and produced in a new format.

All of the library’s publications are available on the library’s site on LawLink. Current awareness publications have been made available electronically on its computerised information network.

The Law Courts Library extended its Reader Education Program with a series of specialised workshops designed for primary clients. The sessions showed participants how to use a combination of print and electronic resources to locate legislation and caselaw. Client feedback has been extremely positive.

The Attorney General’s Library continued its regular weekly training workshops which were well attended by staff from across the Department. The workshops equip staff with the skills to carry out complex research using a variety of electronic resources.

A Desktop Law database, which covers all NSW and Commonwealth legislation, was made available to all officers of the Department via the Intranet during the year. A search engine has been added to Desktop Law to make the database more user friendly. Client feedback has indicated the new legislation database has been well received, improving access to legislation and producing savings through the cancellation of duplicate subscriptions to legislation.

Client feedback has indicated Attorney General’s Library current awareness publications continued to be considered useful by clients. During the year the library drafted a new Library Services brochure, which was printed and distributed to new clients as well as revising, reprinting and distributing a new CD-ROM brochure. The Current Awareness publications were updated throughout the year.

The Attorney General’s Library extended it web site facilities to include issues of publications. The Hint of the Month, (which was renamed Hot Topics) concentrated on subject specific Internet sites. Three current awareness bulletins are now available electronically on the Internet to all officers and the wider community.

Historical researchers from the wider community used the Attorney General’s Library over the past year for a variety of research topics and publication purposes. The library maintains an excellent historical collection of legislation, Parliamentary Papers, Gazettes and Hansard. Researchers can easily browse among the shelves or use the extensive catalogue for relevant information.

More people used the NSW Law Libraries network during the year. 13,687 clients, excluding members of the judiciary, their staff or library staff, used the Compensation Court Library alone. This represents an average of 1,140 clients per month.

The NSW Law Libraries maximised resources by negotiating discounted subscription services. This saving was achieved against a backdrop of rising costs for subscriptions which has seen increases of 10 to 15 per cent over the past year.

The NSW Law Libraries also made savings of $161,453 on the cancellation of hard copy serial titles. These titles were either considered to be no longer relevant to the working needs of the courts or were replaced by material held in electronic format.

New services were created by the Downing Centre staff, including an electronic database of judgments. The development of this database is particularly important to magistrates who need timely access to judgments, especially of the Common Law Division of the Supreme Court.

The Compensation Court Library installed new equipment allowing multiple access to the ISYS database containing judgments of the Compensation Court. This provides better service to legal practitioners appearing before the courts. The library also reorganised its entire collection to offer better access for clients to library materials. This included adding extra shelving and making better use of space.

Email and Internet access was established at the Industrial Relations Commission Library following the installation of new computers.

NSW Law Libraries also assumed responsibility for providing a library service to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal in 1998.


Maintaining a competitive edge

The format and content of the Law Courts Library’s site on LawLink was finalised during the year and receives positive feedback from primary and secondary clients. The content will continue to develop to meet the information needs of clients.

The Law Court’s Library also continued to implement recommendations from the Library Review, where appropriate, to increase available resources.

Clients of the Attorney General’s Library were given access to the Internet this year, allowing access to a wide range of resource materials, including commercial databases, such as Dialog and LEXIS/NEXIS.

All Attorney General’s Library staff were offered training opportunities for their continued professional development. The library considers staff training a priority in keeping up to date with rapidly changing technology and electronic information resources. This enables staff to continue to use their skills and expertise in providing library services to clients.

The Review of Library Services, which resulted in 86 recommendations to improve staffing, technology sharing, rationalisation of resources and service improvement, continued to move forward during the year. 75 per cent of recommendations were fully or partially implemented. The remaining appropriate recommendations will be addressed in 1999/2000.


The year ahead

The Attorney General’s Library will:

• Expand Library’s Internet page to Department’s Intranet, including all Current Awareness Publications, in cooperation with the Law Courts Library;
• Participate in a co-operative venture with Law Reform Commission to share CD tower resources and rationalise hard copy titles; and
• Undertake a co-operative venture between AG’s Library, Law Courts Library and Information Technology Branch to make the catalogue accessible on Lawlink to Departmental officers, courts and wider community;

• Obtaining funding to develop a cooperative venture with the Attorney General’s Library and the Information Technology Branch that will provide internal and external clients with access to all departmental library catalogues via the Internet;
• Developing in partnership with Attorney General’s and Crown Solicitor’s libraries, a current awareness service that can be accessed via the Intranet; and
• Completing the review of the library’s publications and current awareness service.

• Investigate the feasibility of producing the Compensation Court Library’s Current Awareness service in electronic format and circulating it via Lotus Notes;
• Devise a client survey for Downing Centre Library clients in order to produce improvements an quality outcomes in library service; and
• Review District Court subscriptions in both District chambers and courthouses to assess their current value to judges in chambers and on circuit.

• Further streamline jury management process to ensure better value for the community’s investment and greater responsiveness to need;
• Establish a juror support program to ensure induction practices are appropriate to jurors’ needs and access to confidential, professional debriefing services is available for jurors adversely affected by serving on a jury;
• Establish better communication with the customers of the Sheriff’s Office through involvement in Court User Forums, the new Sheriff’s Advisory Council and by establishing closer links with community resources;
• Establish a community education program promoting the role of the Sheriff’s Office to create better understanding between the Office and client groups; and
• Improve officer safety by securing better access to information on known risks.

• Networking all Reporting Services Transcription Centres across NSW to allow all transcript production to be included in the electronic transcript database;
• Extending the transcript orders database to Local Court sales outlets and standardise client service procedures for determining eligibility, fees, etc., across all jurisdictions;
• Reviewing electronic transcript standards, in consultation with judicial officers, to achieve ‘medium neutral’ standard (i.e. standards applicable to hard copy, or a variety of work processing systems) that will assist the judiciary in the introduction of electronic appeal books;
• Achieving greater cost effectiveness by reallocating resources across various court jurisdictions and using sound recording in courts requiring delayed or no transcript, and court reporters only in courts requiring daily transcripts; and
• Piloting the introduction of remote sound recording in the District Court under the Technology in the Courtroom Project and evaluate the potential savings from this technology.