In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office increasingly commissioned research projects to examine problems of judicial administration at the same time that they organized educational programs to help judges manage growing and complicated caseloads. These research and educational programs, however, received no permanent staff or funding. Support for an institutionalized program of judicial research and education increased after adding 60 new district judge positions in 1961 showed that the number of judges alone would not solve all of the problems of overworked courts. Many judges and lawyers asked for a way to bring improved research and education to the courts. 