In Brazil, federal and state court systems have used technology in the last years, but the experience and coverage is mixed. In the early 1990s, one of the major initiatives of the federal judiciary has been the computerization of electoral courts. This experience and other reforms have motivated some states judiciaries to advance court automation in different jurisdictions, in aspects such as public information, case management, and document archiving. Studies indicate that the needs for information technology and communications use are rising as many state court systems lag1 behind in investments.
    The modernization of the documentary archives of the federal judiciary is a fairly recent initiative that has been motivated by a growing concern for the preservation of the country's historical archive, and by the need to manage the exponential growth of current archives. Paper archives constitute an enormous investment in terms of time and space, documents deteriorate or are lost, and information retrieval can be laborious. The modernization of archives involves not only the rationalization of existing resources and collections, but also the introduction of new technologies for the electronic storage and retrieval of current documents.
    In May 1998, the Supreme Federal Tribunal initiated a project of reform, and in early 2000 carried out a survey to identify the problem areas relating to infrastructure, access, archiving policy, training and management strategies. The survey results constitute an important first step in the development of a long-term technical and administrative policy for the management of judicial archives.
Follow on work has so far collected information from all the archiveholding judicial institutions in the area of the capital, Brasília. There are on average 4 archivists per institution, which means one archivist for every 751 meters of documents. The technical equipment is for the most part antiquated, with only 37% of archives equipped with computer terminals. Most of the judicial archives do not, therefore, have either the technical or personnel resources necessary for the efficient management, storage and retrieval of documents.

¹lag – a delay between two things happening.

Internet: www.pogar.org (adapted).

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