HISTORY OF LAW REPORTING
NEW LAW REPORTING TECHNOLOGIES
The second half of the twentieth century was a period of technological innovation in the publishing of the Official Reports. A “Microlex Edition,” which utilized a microprint reader for viewing miniaturized pages, was introduced in the 1950s, some three decades ahead of the development of the modern microfiche edition.
In 1965, a novel approach to legal research – electronic retrieval of decisions resident in a computer database – piqued the interest of State Reporter James M. Flavin. A contract was entered into between the State Reporter and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) “to test a pilot case retrieval system for New York State Court of Appeals cases.” This initiative gained some momentum the following year with the New York State Senate’s approval of a $7,500 appropriation to pursue the concept. Under a 1967 contract, an IBM 2741 workstation was provided to the Law Reporting Bureau for transmitting the text of New York Reports 2d volumes to the remote IBM Datatext System. While the pilot case retrieval system did not immediately prove to be practicable, this early experiment with computerized case retrieval did, however, foreshadow the next chapter in official reporting – the electronic publication of the Official Reports.
Above:
August 30, 1966 letter from the Chairman of the New York State Senate Committee on Finance, Warren M. Anderson, approving a $7,500 appropriation for work on an electronic case retrival system.
Above:
The IBM 2741 was a Selectric typewriter, embedded in a small desk-size cabinet, modified for telecommunications.
Page 19
