FAIRHOPE, Ala. — As of Tuesday morning, the Alacourt.com system, which provides “user-friendly” electronic access to public state court records in Alabama, was not installed on the lone computer terminal for the general public at the Fairhope Satellite Courthouse.

That “enhanced access” system provided by On Line Information Services, a private company in Mobile, and the Administrative Office of Courts, was also not installed on the public access computer terminals at the Bay Minette Courthouse or the Foley Satellite Courthouse.

But that could change soon.

“We’re doing that even as we speak,” said Baldwin County Circuit Clerk Jody Campbell yesterday morning, referring to having the Alacourt system installed at those locations. “I didn’t even know that we didn’t have it.”

She said the system could be installed as early as today, “barring any technical problems or unforeseen problems.”

Alacourt.com is one of the most “user-friendly” systems in the country, said Griffin Sikes, Administrative Office of Courts legal division director.

“Alacourt is Web-based while (the State Judicial Information System) is DOS-based,” said Sikes, referring to the old Data Operating System screens that were first seen on personal computers in the early 1980s when BASIC programming skills were required and before “point-and-click” was part of the vocabulary.

In those early days of the computer era, online information was navigated only by function keys before the advent of user-friendly icons and hyperlinks.

“They are not the same but contain the same information made available in different ways,” Sikes said.

As of yesterday, the general public faced SJIS screens at Baldwin County courthouses if they wanted to access state court information without charge.

In Fairhope, the public access computer is located on a narrow shelf running next to the window where people do business at the clerk’s office. The printer is on the floor under the computer. It has not worked for about a year, said a court employee.

The computer has also been out for repairs this year.

“It’s better than a year ago,” said the employee, referring to the computers used by staff at the satellite courthouse. “We still had these really old PCs.”

A page taped on the counter next to the computer lists the 11 steps it takes to access the SJIS system.

Although the Baldwin County public access terminals did not have the user-friendly system installed in Bay Minette as of yesterday morning, the AlaVault system was installed, Campbell said.

That system enables viewing of documents in cases maintained by the AJIS system. In Fairhope, although that AlaVault system is indicated on the typewritten page next to the computer with the steps on how to access it, it was not installed. The general public, as of yesterday could only view the names of cases, but not the documents themselves.

“We just e-mailed (the AOC),” another court employee said Monday. “We may be getting (AlaVault) on there.”

Campbell said funds are short for the state court system, which means fewer resources for such things as computers.

She also said space is limited at the current Fairhope courthouse but that she might look at space reallocation there.

“I want public access to court records to be as available as possible,” Campbell said.

A Fairhope court employee added Monday, “Maybe next time you come, we’ll have it done.