What is CORE?

CORE (Compact Online Reference Encyclopedia) is a search index that incorporates and cross-references all of the ICAOS Rules, Advisory Opinions, Bench Book, Bylaws, Hearing Officer's Guide, Administrative Policies, Helpdesk (Support) Articles, White Papers, and Training Modules. The interface makes it easy and intuitive to find all related information on a certain compact topic from the most useful documents and trainings published by ICAOS.

How Does CORE Work?

Each of the main document types has its own table of contents page, very similar to the Rules Step-By-Step page on the current ICAOS website.

• Advisory Opinions - https://www.interstatecompact.org/advisory-opinions
• Bench Book - https://www.interstatecompact.org/bench-book
• Bylaws - https://www.interstatecompact.org/bylaws
• Hearing Officer's Guide - https://www.interstatecompact.org/hearing-officers-guide
• Helpdesk Articles - https://support.interstatecompact.org/hc/en-us
• ICAOS Policies - https://www.interstatecompact.org/policies
• ICAOS Rules - https://www.interstatecompact.org/icaos-rules
• White Papers - https://www.interstatecompact.org/white-papers
• On-Demand Modules - https://www.interstatecompact.org/training/on-demand

Search Page

The most innovate part of CORE is the new search index built around the ICAOS legal documents and training modules. The index categorizes each piece of content from the various legal documents and training modules, and assigns them a weight based on contextual keyword matches.

CORE Default Search Page – https://www.interstatecompact.org/core-search

Ranked Search Results

When a user types in a keyword or series of keywords, CORE will return the best matches for individual content types based on the occurrence of those keywords and related keywords in the document.

Filter Search Results by Type of Content

After a user searches for the keywords relevant to their compact query, they have the option to filter the results further based on their need. For example, someone searching for “retaking” may want to understand what retaking means from a compact office perspective, so they could filter the search results further by clicking “ICAOS Rules” in the sidebar under the ‘Content Type’ section.

Conversely, a judge may find filtering search results by Bench Book only to be more useful.

Cross-Referenced Documents

Each rule, advisory opinion, bench book chapter, white paper, and on-demand training has its own content page on the website now. At the bottom of each content page is a section for cross-referenced documents.

Content Navigation

Each content page has a “Content Navigation” section at the top of the sidebar. These links allow a user to go to the main table of contents for that type of content, move up or down consecutively to the next chapter or document for that type of content, or go ‘up’ one level to the section, chapter, or year that organizes that type of content. One of the links will also take the user to the search results containing all of that type of content (e.g. all the bench book search results).

Related Search Results

Each content page also contains a section in the sidebar that will take the user to related CORE search results. The search results are broken down by keywords, rules, bench book chapters, topic area, and year.

Keywords – List of keywords assigned as related to that document. Each link takes the user to all of the other CORE search results related to that keyword, regardless of the type of content.

ICAOS Rules – List of related rules for that document. Each link takes the user to the CORE search results for all other documents and trainings that also reference that particular ICAOS Rule.

Bench Book Chapter - List of related bench book chapters for that document. Each link takes the user to the CORE search results for all other documents and trainings that also reference that particular bench book chapter.

Topic Area - List of Topic Areas to which that document is assigned. Each link takes the user to all of the other CORE search results for documents assigned to that topic area, regardless of the type of content.

Year – Depending on the type of content, this is the year that particular document was reviewed, revised, published, amended, etc. Essentially, the last year the document had any action taken. The link takes the user to the CORE search results for all other documents which last had action taken on them in that year.

Training Modules

The current page for on-demand training on the ICAOS website only has a general description of the trainings and a single link to the on-demand training portal. CORE incorporates each on-demand training course and provides a link to access each module directly from the course description.

Document PDFs

In the past, the legal documents published by ICAOS were all their own stand-alone PDF document uploaded to the website for users to download. This was the only way in which users could download white papers, the entire bench book, and full versions of each advisory opinion. CORE was built so that all legal documents could be viewed in HTML format, but also easily downloaded to PDF.

Single Source for Updates

Previously, whenever a document like the ICAOS Rules was amended or the Bench Book was revised, changes had to be published in multiple places, in several documents. Because CORE was built so that the HTML for each document page is also used to generate the downloadable PDF version, the national office only needs to make an update in one place and its immediately propagated wherever that document appears on the ICAOS website.

Downloadable PDF Links

Though users can now view and read full white papers, advisory opinions, and bench book chapters on the web, downloading PDF versions of those documents is just as easy as before. In fact, users can now download all the advisory opinions or all the white papers at once in a single PDF document, in addition to a PDF for each opinion or paper.