ACORN
Archived
Court
Reporter
Notes
Reporter tested, Court
approved!
ACORN is a web-based service that provides secure, long term storage of court
reporter notes in electronic format. It was originally
developed for the Los Angeles County
Superior Court for their more than 600 reporters in 32 different courthouses and has
been in daily use by them since 1998. Today, it is used
by nearly 80% of the official court reporters in
California and is now expanding to courts in other
states.
ACORN
provides an easy way for reporters to store their notes
electronically on a secure archival server. It stores
raw notes, dictionaries, and even transcribed notes. Reporter
can identify their note files by type, such as criminal,
civil, juvenile, can include case numbers and dates, and
can add comments. Special situations such as death
penalty, LWOP, or sealed records can also be flagged.
ACORN maintains a permanent electronic copy of
the note files for the court. In situations where the
court needs a copy of the notes but the reporter is no
longer available, the archived notes can be accessed by
the court appointed system administrator. As additional
security, each quarter the court is provided with backup CDs containing copies of
all new note files uploaded by the reporters during the previous quarter. Courts may also opt to receive the quarterly backup data as an FTP transfer rather than on CDs.
ACORN creates a separate account for each
reporter on the archival server. Each reporter must log
in with their own assigned user ID and password. The user ID
is their CSR number. Reporters may select their own
password. All the notes for a reporter are stored in
that reporter’s directory on the archival server.
ACORN requires that an individual be designated
by the court as the court's ACORN system administrator. Depending upon
the court, the duties of this individual may include
setting up new reporter accounts, creating various
management reports, retrieving notes, and so on. Some
courts allow the reporters to retrieve copies of their
own notes, while others restrict this activity to the
system administrator.
ACORN is provided as a monthly subscription
service. There is no hardware or software to purchase,
either by the court or by the reporter. Everything is
done with a normal Internet connection and standard web
pages.
Extensive security is in place to ensure that
only authorized individuals have access to any of the
files. All files are stored redundantly, with duplicate
copies on multiple hard disks, backup tapes, and CD
media.
The ACORN system is very simple to use. Here is a
sample of how it works.
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1.
The first step is to log on to the ACORN
service. This is done by opening the ACORN web
page that was created for the court. On the web page,
the reporter enters their CSR Number and password and
clicks on the Login button.
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2.
When the reporter logs in successfully, the
Welcome screen is displayed. The reporter can choose
Upload, Search, Change Password, or Logout options.
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3.
The Upload Files screen is used to upload new
files to the ACORN archival server. The reporter first
identifies the file or files to be uploaded, either by
entering the file name or by using the Browse button.
For each file, additional information can be entered,
including the case date, number, and type, the file
type, any special flags for death penalty, LWOP, or
sealed records, and any other miscellaneous comments
that the reporter wants to add to the file record.
When all of the information has been entered, the
reporter can click on the Next button to proceed to the
next screen.
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4.
When the reporter clicks on the Next button
on the Upload Files screen, the Upload Confirmation
screen is displayed. This screen will list all of the
files that will be uploaded and the reporter is given
the opportunity to approve the upload before it
proceeds. |
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5.
When the files have been uploaded, the Upload
Results screen is displayed. This screen provides
confirmation to the reporter that all of the selected
files have been properly uploaded to the archival
server.
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6.
There are many ways to locate a file after it
has been uploaded. When a file is needed, the Search
option on the ACORN home page is selected. The Search
for Files screen contains a number of index fields that
can be used to search for a particular file.
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7.
After the reporter has entered the
appropriate search criteria and clicked on the Search
button, the Search Results screen is displayed.
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