Supreme Court of Canada Departmental Performance Report 2008-2009

The federal government today tabled in the House of Commons 92 Departmental Performance Reports on behalf of federal departments and agencies.

The 2008-2009 Departmental Performance Report for the Supreme Court of Canada provides an outline of the institution's activities in the last year, covering, among other things:

• courtroom modernization (the introduction of an advanced e-courtroom)
• development of an electronic document and records management system
• web-based electronic case filing
• better staffing strategies
• review of the library collection development policy
  

When it comes to the performance of the Supreme Court of Canada library, the document reports that user satisfaction is extremely high.

User satisfaction surveys were conducted in April 2008 and December 2008:

"Specifically users were asked 5 questions : Did you receive the required information? Was it useful to your work? Was it received on time? Did library staff save you time? Would you have any additional comments to add? Results were compiled in two separate reports. Turnaround time within service standards was met 95% of the time for complex requests, while 100% of users indicated that they were 'very satisfied' with the level of service received from the library staff. The Library met turnaround time targets for factual and bibliographic requests 100% of the time."

As well, the library adopted a new collection development policy in 2008-2009 after extensive consultation process with internal and external stakeholders.

The document contains general remarks about the quality and comprehensiveness of the Court's library collection:

"Based on a citation analysis of the references cited in the Supreme Court of Canada decisions released in 2008, 95.16% of law reports cited and 89.93% of journal articles/books cited are available in the Library's print collection. With the addition of electronic resources licensed to the Court, the Collection is able to meet the information needs of the Court 98% of the time, consistent with previous years. It is anticipated that the proportion of material available only in electronic format will increase relative to the availability of material in print format in future years. Also in 2008-09, the Library made its journal A-Z list available to the public on the Court's website, providing access to its extensive collection of legal periodicals in print, electronic and microform to legal researchers across the country."

Every year, federal departments and agencies publish Reports on Plans and Priorities (RPPs) outlining their strategic goals.

At the end of the fiscal year, Departmental Performance Reports look back on actual accomplishments and expenditures, to assess how well the agencies performed as measured against the objectives that were set out in the RPPs.