On my reading list:

Legal Self Help Should Swipe Right on Google: Given that search engines are the primary way non-lawyers search for legal information, CALI exec John Mayer proposes Google create a special interface to display legal self-help search results. Google already does this when you search certain keywords – for instance, searching “measles” or any other health-related term will prompt Google to display a sidebar with basic definitions, iconic symbols, and a downloadable PDF among other functions.

These Future Attorneys are Skipping Law School: This short and heartwarming video is spreading like wildfire on my social media timeline, and for good reason! A past Equal Justice Works (my former employer! love them) Fellow is fighting the racial and gender disparity in the legal profession by offering California-based four-year program that trains legal apprentices to pass the bar.

Two Improvements Our Courts Can Implement for Self-Represented Litigants: The Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner recently announced that the Supreme Court will include easy-to-understand summaries in future headnotes. Toronto attorney Heather Douglas offers two other ideas to make the law more accessible: staffed kiosks and multimedia summaries! I’m a fan of both, especially including more audiovisual elements for non-lawyers.

The Innovation Gap Part 1 and Part 2: Legal tech expert Robert Ambrogi wrote a couple of interesting takes on access to justice and legal technology for Above the Law. Part I in particular has a great overview of the justice gap issue in America, along with some great links to resources like a Boston Bar Association study that mirrors the nationwide legal aid crisis and the 2013 LSC report on the use of tech to expand access to justice. Ambrogi offers a few potential explanations for the widespread resistance to legal tech.

Also: I wanted to share two upcoming essay contests for library students.

• The Progressive Librarians Guild is offering a $500 Braverman Award for the best essay “on some aspect of the social responsibilities of librarians, libraries, or librarianship,” and the
• AALL’s Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition is open to grad students (including law school and library school) interested in “legal research, rare books, and historical bibliography”.