Clicklaw Wikibooks: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 21:59, 14 December 2020

Clicklaw Wikibooks are collaboratively developed, plain language legal publications that are published and kept up-to-date on a wiki, where they can also be printed and downloaded. They are free to download and share with British Columbians who seek reliable, up-to-date information to address legal problems or learn about the law. Courthouse Libraries BC launched Clicklaw Wikibooks in 2012, and the program relies on the guidance of our Advisory Committee, which includes contributor organizations and other stakeholders from the legal and library community.

About Clicklaw Wikibooks

Clicklaw Wikibooks cover a variety of BC legal topics using plain language so people don't need legal training to understand them. They are available in print and digitally, and range in size from small booklets to 1,000+ page manuals. They are collaboratively developed in the sense that many different legal professionals and law-related non-profit organizations contribute content and help keep it accurate, while Courthouse Libraries BC manages the platform and helps recruit volunteer authors and reviewers. Many titles in the Clicklaw Wikibooks collection were originally print publications or even stand-alone websites that were redone as Clicklaw Wikibooks to ensure the legal information is:

highly accessible both online and in print,
accurate and up-to-date, and
affordable to produce and maintain.

A significant factor in determining whether a printed legal resource is accessible is whether it is publicly available in libraries. For this reason, we work closely with public libraries through the LawMatters program.

Clicklaw Wikibooks help solve two central challenges with publishing legal information:

Law is constantly evolving: It can be cumbersome and time consuming to keep a legal publication up-to-date using the traditional book publishing model. A wiki is easy to update without emailing versions back and forth between author, editor and reviewer. The wiki platform has a robust version history and comparison feature, and changes made are instantly available to readers.
It's hard to offer multiple formats of a resource An up-to-date website can be excellent, but rarely is it also available in print or to read offline—and there are many for whom computers or the internet are simply not accessible. On the other hand, information in purely printed form is comparatively costly to produce and share, and it does not get spread as quickly or as widely as internet-based forms. Clicklaw Wikibooks lets authors and law-related non-profit organizations edit their content in a single place. Meanwhile the platform automatically generates multiple formats. PDF and EPUB files are generated for printing or off-line reading, and users can order the book by mail at the cost of print-on-demand.

For more on Clicklaw Wikibooks, see the Clicklaw Wikibooks Guides.

Using Clicklaw Wikibooks

How you use Clicklaw Wikibooks depends on whether you are a member of the public who needs legal information, or a contributor (i.e. one of the authors, editors or reviewers of a Clicklaw Wikibook) who wants to edit your organization's content.

Here is a list of Clicklaw Wikibooks Guides covering how to use this website. Guides are written for users, contributors and editors, and wiki administrators, as well as generally for copyright questions, and how to print or export Clicklaw Wikibooks.

Contact

We can be reached at editor@clicklaw.bc.ca.

Goals

Clicklaw Wikibooks strives to be a quality legal information resource and an attractive publishing platform for organizations who produce public legal information. Clicklaw Wikibooks follow best practice guidelines for the development and maintenance of online public legal education and information (PLEI). The specific goals adopted by the Advisory Committee include user-centric goals, contributor-centric goals, and goals around efficiency and sustainability:

User-centric

Plain language legal information for a public audience
Maximum accessibility (barriers: regional, language, literacy, disability, technology, age)
Familiar and simple for end-users to use

Contributor-centric

Strong multiple format export (print and digital) from single source
Simple for editors and content partners to use
Develop and foster a skilled community of legal content volunteers who can work on more than one project

Efficient & sustainable

Easy to administer
Works for most PLEI publishing needs, most of the time
Helps PLEI organizations collaborate and work together
Supports public libraries
Cheap and efficient technology to develop and maintain
Achieve economies of scale and progressive affordability
Free, open source and open license

Governance

Clicklaw Wikibooks is operated and maintained by Courthouse Libraries BC with the assistance of the Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee. Members of the Advisory Committee are selected from contributor organizations and stakeholders, with an emphasis on diversity to reflect the needs and interests of public users, volunteer editors, contributor organizations and public libraries.

Selection criteria

When considering new titles to add to the Clicklaw Wikibooks collection, the Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee considers the same content criteria guidelines as Clicklaw, www.clicklaw.bc.ca, our sister website.

About the wiki platform

Clicklaw Wikibooks uses MediaWiki, a free software open source wiki platform originally for use on Wikipedia. We adapted and customized the MediaWiki platform in key ways. Only approved people can edit Clicklaw Wikibooks, and the options for downloading titles from the collection in PDF and EPUB, or for ordering them as print-on-demand books, have been streamlined. Improvements and customization are ongoing, and the Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee considers a scorecard approach balancing principled and practical considerations for technical enhancements to the platform.

Principled criteria

Alignment with user-centric needs
Alignment with contributor-centric needs
Alignment with admin-centric needs
Alignment with public libraries’ needs

Practical criteria

Cost of implementation
Ease of implementation

List of Clicklaw Wikibooks

There are currently 4,265 legal information and supporting pages hosted on Clicklaw Wikibooks. See the full list of Clicklaw Wikibook titles.

Donation

Thank you for thinking of us! You can donate to our organization, Courthouse Libraries BC. Your donation will go toward building the information technology infrastructure that is critical to our services. Please visit our Canada Helps secure page to make your tax-deductible donation today.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Clicklaw Wikibooks]] are collaboratively developed, plain language legal publications that are born-wiki and can also be printed.
+[[Clicklaw Wikibooks]] are collaboratively developed, plain language legal publications that are published and kept up-to-date on a wiki, where they can also be printed and downloaded. They are free to download and share with British Columbians who seek reliable, up-to-date information to address legal problems or learn about the law. [[Courthouse Libraries BC]] launched Clicklaw Wikibooks in 2012, and the program relies on the guidance of our [[:Category:Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee|Advisory Committee]], which includes contributor organizations and other stakeholders from the legal and library community.
-Clicklaw Wikibooks are provided as part of the Clicklaw program operated by [[Courthouse Libraries BC]] to help the public in British Columbia find and use legal information. The main [http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca Clicklaw] website offers a single window into legal information for the public from dozens of organizations in BC.
+==About Clicklaw Wikibooks==
-<onlyinclude>
+Clicklaw Wikibooks cover a variety of BC legal topics using plain language so people don't need legal training to understand them. They are available in print and digitally, and range in size from small booklets to 1,000+ page manuals. They are ''collaboratively developed'' in the sense that many different [[:Category:Contributor Bio|legal professionals]] and [[:Category:Contributor Organizations|law-related non-profit organizations]] contribute content and help keep it accurate, while [[Courthouse Libraries BC]] manages the platform and helps recruit volunteer authors and reviewers. Many titles in the [[Contents|Clicklaw Wikibooks collection]] were originally print publications or even stand-alone websites that were redone as Clicklaw Wikibooks to ensure the legal information is:
-==List of Clicklaw Wikibooks==
+*highly accessible ''both'' online and in print,
+*accurate and up-to-date, and
+*affordable to produce and maintain.
+A significant factor in determining whether a printed legal resource is ''accessible'' is whether it is publicly available in libraries. For this reason, we work closely with public libraries through the [https://www.courthouselibrary.ca/connect-collaborate/lawmatters LawMatters program].
+Clicklaw Wikibooks help solve two central challenges with publishing legal information:
+#'''Law is constantly evolving:''' It can be cumbersome and time consuming to keep a legal publication up-to-date using the traditional book publishing model. A wiki is easy to update without emailing versions back and forth between author, editor and reviewer. The wiki platform has a robust version history and comparison feature, and changes made are instantly available to readers.
+#'''It's hard to offer multiple formats of a resource''' An up-to-date website can be excellent, but rarely is it also available in print or to read offline—and there are many for whom computers or the internet are simply not accessible. On the other hand, information in purely printed form is comparatively costly to produce and share, and it does not get spread as quickly or as widely as internet-based forms. Clicklaw Wikibooks lets authors and law-related non-profit organizations edit their content in a single place. Meanwhile the platform automatically generates multiple formats. PDF and EPUB files are generated for printing or off-line reading, and users can order the book by mail at the cost of print-on-demand.
-{| cellpadding="3" style="font-size:85%; border: 1px;"
+For more on Clicklaw Wikibooks, see the [[:Category:Clicklaw Wikibooks Guides|Clicklaw Wikibooks Guides]].
-|- valign="top"
-| [[File:jpboydcover.png|x200px|link=JP Boyd on Family Law]]<br /><div class="center">''[[JP Boyd on Family Law]]'' <br />John-Paul Boyd & others</div>
-| [[File:legalhelpguidecover.png|x200px|link=Legal Help for British Columbians]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Legal Help for British Columbians|Legal Help for BC]]'' <br />Cliff Thorstenson & others</div>
-| [[File:Tenantsurvivalguidecover.jpg|x200px|link=Tenant Survival Guide]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Tenant Survival Guide]]'' <br />TRAC</div>
-| [[File:A_Death_in_Your_Family_cover_image.png|x200px|link=A Death in Your Family]]<br /><div class="center">''[[A Death in Your Family]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:CoverConsumerLawWikibook.JPG|x200px|link=Consumer Law Wikibook]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Consumer Law Wikibook]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-|-valign="top"
-| [[File:Driving_in_BC_cover_image.png|x200px|link=Driving in BC]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Driving in BC]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Human_Trafficking_in_Canada_cover_image.png|x200px|link=Human Trafficking in Canada]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Human Trafficking in Canada]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Learning about the Law cover image.jpg|x200px|link=Learning about the Law Wikibook]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Learning about the Law Wikibook|Learning about the Law]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:PayingTaxes 2014 Cover.jpg|x200px|link=Paying Taxes in BC]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Paying Taxes in BC]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Workplace bullying and harassment-2014 Cover.jpg|x200px|link=Workplace Bullying and Harassment]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Workplace Bullying and Harassment|Workplace Bullying & Harassment]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-|-valign="top"
-| [[File:English - Being an Executor 2014 Cover.jpg|x200px|link=Being an Executor]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Being an Executor]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Family Violence and Abuse cover image.jpg|x200px|link=Family Violence and Abuse]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Family Violence and Abuse]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Writing Your Will cover image.jpg|x200px|link=Writing Your Will]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Writing Your Will]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Power of Attorney cover image.jpg|x200px|link=Power of Attorney]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Power of Attorney]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Legal_Issues_in_Residential_Care_cover_image.jpg|x200px|link=Legal Issues in Residential Care: An Advocate's Manual]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Legal Issues in Residential Care: An Advocate's Manual|Legal Issues in Residential <br>Care: An Advocate's Manual]]'' <br />BC CEAS</div>
-|-valign="top"
-| [[File:Child Support in BC cover image.jpg|x200px|link=Child Support in BC]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Child Support in BC]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Child Protection in BC cover image.jpg|x200px|link=Child Protection in BC]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Child Protection in BC]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Consequences of a Youth Record in BC cover image.jpg|x200px|link=Consequences of a Youth Record in BC]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Consequences of a Youth Record in BC|Consequences of a <br>Youth Record]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-| [[File:Dial-A-Law cover image.jpg|x200px|link=Dial-A-Law]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Dial-A-Law]]'' <br />CBABC</div>
-|}
-==Learn & Teach Series==
+==Using Clicklaw Wikibooks==
-The [[:Category:Learn & Teach Series|Learn & Teach Series]] on Clicklaw Wikibooks features resources for educators and learners on legal topics.
+How you use Clicklaw Wikibooks depends on whether you are a member of the public who needs legal information, or a contributor (i.e. one of the authors, editors or reviewers of a Clicklaw Wikibook) who wants to edit your organization's content.
-{| cellpadding="3" style="font-size:85%; border: 1px;"
-|- valign="top"
-|[[File:Law-Related Lessons Graphic.jpg|x140px|link=Law-Related ESL Lessons]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Law-Related ESL Lessons]]'' <br />People's Law School</div>
-|[[File:Settlement Workers Guide cover image.jpg| x140px |link=Settlement Workers Guide to Helping Clients with Legal Information and Legal Referrals]]<br /><div class="center">''[[Settlement Workers Guide to Helping Clients with Legal Information and Legal Referrals|Settlement Workers Guide]]'' <br />Immigrant PLEI Consortium</div>
-|}
+Here is a list of [[Clicklaw Wikibooks Guides]] covering how to use this website. Guides are written for users, contributors and editors, and wiki administrators, as well as generally for copyright questions, and how to print or export Clicklaw Wikibooks.
-</onlyinclude>
+==Contact==
+We can be reached at editor@clicklaw.bc.ca.
 ==Goals==
-Clicklaw Wikibooks seeks to be a resource focused on the needs of the public (site users who require legal information) and contributor organizations who produce public legal information. We strive to provide a platform that is user and contributor-centric while at the same time efficient, cost-effective, supportive of public libraries and an example of good, productive collaboration.
+Clicklaw Wikibooks strives to be a quality legal information resource and an attractive publishing platform for organizations who produce public legal information. Clicklaw Wikibooks follow [[Best Practice Guidelines for the Development and Maintenance of Online PLEI in BC|best practice guidelines]] for the development and maintenance of online public legal education and information (PLEI).
+The specific goals adopted by the [[:Category:Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee|Advisory Committee]] include ''user-centric'' goals, ''contributor-centric'' goals, and goals around ''efficiency and sustainability'':
-{|
+'''User-centric'''
-|-
+*Plain language legal information for a public audience
-! User-centric !! Contributor-centric !! Efficient & sustainable
-|- valign="top"
-|
-*Plain language legal information for a public audience consistent with
 *Maximum accessibility (barriers: regional, language, literacy, disability, technology, age)
 *Familiar and simple for end-users to use
-|
+'''Contributor-centric'''
 *Strong multiple format export (print and digital) from single source
 *Simple for editors and content partners to use
 *Develop and foster a skilled community of legal content volunteers who can work on more than one project
-|
-* Easy for CLBC to administer
+'''Efficient & sustainable'''
+* Easy to administer
 * Works for most PLEI publishing needs, most of the time
 * Helps PLEI organizations collaborate and work together
@@ Line 64: / Line 44: @@
 * Achieve economies of scale and progressive affordability
 * Free, open source and open license
-|}
+==Governance==
+Clicklaw Wikibooks is operated and maintained by [http://www.courthouselibrary.ca Courthouse Libraries BC] with the assistance of the [[:Category:Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee|Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee]]. Members of the Advisory Committee are selected from contributor organizations and stakeholders, with an emphasis on diversity to reflect the needs and interests of public users, volunteer editors, contributor organizations and public libraries.
 ==Selection criteria==
-When selecting new contributors to work with and titles to add to the Clicklaw Wikibooks collection, we adopt the same [http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/content/guidelines content criteria guidelines] as Clicklaw. When prioritizing titles, and even technical features and enhancements to the platform, we employ a scorecard approach balancing principled and practical considerations.
+When considering new titles to add to the [[Contents|Clicklaw Wikibooks collection]], the [[:Category:Clicklaw_Wikibooks_Advisory_Committee|Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee]] considers the same [http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/content/guidelines content criteria guidelines] as Clicklaw, [http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca www.clicklaw.bc.ca], our sister website.
+==About the wiki platform==
+Clicklaw Wikibooks uses [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki], a free software open source wiki platform originally for use on Wikipedia. We adapted and customized the MediaWiki platform in key ways. Only approved people can edit Clicklaw Wikibooks, and the options for downloading [[Contents|titles from the collection]] in PDF and EPUB, or for ordering them as print-on-demand books, have been streamlined. Improvements and customization are ongoing, and the [[:Category:Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee|Clicklaw Wikibooks Advisory Committee]] considers a scorecard approach balancing principled and practical considerations for technical enhancements to the platform.
 ===Principled criteria===
 * Alignment with user-centric needs
@@ Line 76: / Line 61: @@
 *Cost of implementation
 *Ease of implementation
+<onlyinclude>
-==Customize==
+==List of Clicklaw Wikibooks==
-[[Image:create own book.png|link=]]
+There are currently {{NUMBEROFPAGES}} legal information and supporting pages hosted on Clicklaw Wikibooks.
+See the [[Contents|full list of Clicklaw Wikibook titles]].
-Need something custom? Need a chapter from one Clicklaw Wikibook, and a few pages from another? [[Clicklaw_Wikibooks_Print/Export_Guide | Learn how to create and export]] your own custom collection. [[:Category:Books | Click here for collections of full Clicklaw Wikibooks.]] You can use these as a starting point.
+==Donation==
+Thank you for thinking of us! You can donate to our organization,  Courthouse Libraries BC. Your donation will go toward building the information technology infrastructure that is critical to our services. Please visit our [https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/british-columbia-courthouse-library-society/#donate-now-pane Canada Helps secure page] to make your tax-deductible donation today.
-==What are Clicklaw Wikibooks?==
-Clicklaw Wikibooks provide legal information for the public in British Columbia in a way that is:
-*highly accessible ''both'' online and in print,
-*accurate and up-to-date, and
-*affordable to produce.
-Clicklaw Wikibooks are an attempt to solve two central challenges in publishing legal information:
-#'''Law is constantly evolving:''' Legal information, to be helpful, has to be current with updates in the law. It can be cumbersome and time consuming to keep a legal publication up-to-date using the traditional book publishing model — that is, updating a word processing or page layout file; emailing versions back and forth between author, editor and reviewer; and sending a printable PDF off to the printer.
-#'''Formats are multiplying:''' Most legal publications are still optimized for printing, which typically compromises other formats (the web, ebooks, mobile), even as they grow in importance. The way many legal publications are produced is to format for printing, then create a PDF of the printed version, and put the PDF on the Internet. The resulting PDFs aren't easy to navigate around, to view on the screen, or to find for that matter.
-Clicklaw Wikibooks try to solve these problems:
-*'''They can be updated over the Internet, by multiple contributors.''' The wiki platform has a robust version history and comparison feature, and changes made are instantly available to readers.
-*'''They offer a highly accessible online experience.''' As the wiki version is powered by the open source software [http://www.mediawiki.org MediaWiki], the software that powers the hugely popular Wikipedia, it offers a familiar, easy-to-read experience for anyone who has used Wikipedia.
-*'''They offer up an online and print version ''from the same source''.''' The wiki platform can be used to generate a print version of a publication that is a professional, good quality bound publication. The MediaWiki software is free and constantly evolving, providing an affordable means to produce legal information for multiple formats.
-For more on Clicklaw Wikibooks, see the [[Clicklaw Wikibooks FAQ]].
-==How do I use Clicklaw Wikibooks?==
-How you use Clicklaw Wikibooks depends on whether you are a member of the public who needs legal information, or someone with a Clicklaw Wikibooks account (i.e. one of the authors, editors or reviewers of a Clicklaw Wikibook) who wants to know how to edit content.
-Here is a list of [[Clicklaw Wikibooks Guides]] covering how to use this website. Guides are written for users, contributors and editors, and wiki administrators, as well as generally for copyright questions, and how to print or export Clicklaw Wikibooks.
 [[Category:Navigation Page]]
 __NOGLOSSARY__