PACER Focus Group Volunteers Needed

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) is conducting user satisfaction assessments to improve their publicly available services, including PACER. They would like to conduct a focus group of depository librarians. If you are interested in participating in the focus group, please e-mail Serena Chao ([email protected]). To ensure the focus group includes a diversity of libraries, please include your depository library number, and your library type and size. More details are in the invitation to particpate, which is below. Note that they need to hear from you on or before October 8th!

GPO thanks the AOUSC for including depository libraries in their assessment process.

Dear FDLP Librarian,

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts is conducting a user satisfaction assessment as part of an effort to improve the Courts’ Electronic Public Access (EPA) services, including PACER and the U.S. Party/Case Index (USPCI). Specifically, the AO’s Public Access and Records Management group and the court-based EPA Working Group have partnered with an independent third-party research firm, Pacific Consulting Group, on the assessment. Assessment findings will be used to improve these EPA services for all users.

As part of this research, Pacific Consulting Group will hold a small-group discussion via teleconference with Librarians who are recent PACER or USPCI users and who represent a cross-section of FCLP Libraries. If you have used PACER in the past 12 months, we would like to include you in this focus group. This discussion is being supplemented by interviews with FDLP Librarians, and interviews and focus groups with many other types of PACER and USPCI users.

The goal of the discussions is to better understand the requirements and experiences of Librarians like yourself with PACER and the USPCI. You will be joined on this call by a professional moderator from Pacific Consulting Group and a few other Librarians from around the country. This is an opportunity to describe your experiences, provide input, and make recommendations to help improve PACER and the USPCI.

The focus group will be held via free teleconference on Wednesday, October 14 at 12:00 pm (noon) EASTERN STANDARD TIME. We hope you will join us, share your views, and contribute to improving the Courts’ Electronic Public Access services.

Please simply respond to me, Serena Chao, at [email protected] that you can participate; those who cannot participate need not respond. I will send you a confirmation email including instructions for joining the teleconference and will include “PACER focus group” in the subject line of the confirmation email.

This discussion is anonymous – your comments will not be attributed to you personally but will be reported in the aggregate and merged with comments from other Librarians – and your participation is voluntary. No preparation is required on your part. We will discuss your experiences: how you use these services, what you find easy and difficult, and your suggestions for changes to both PACER and the USPCI. The session will last about one hour.

The AO’s Public Access and Records Management team, the court-based EPA Working Group, and the Pacific Consulting Group greatly appreciate your willingness to participate and to help us improve the Court’s Electronic Public Access services. We would appreciate hearing from you on or before Thursday October 8, 2009.

Thank you,

Serena Chao
Pacific Consulting Group
399 Sherman Avenue, Suite 1
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone 650-327-8108
[email protected]
www.pcgfirm.com