Revisions to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law will provide the public with easier access to a wider range of documents and meeting information, but the changes are creating logistical problems for Island officials as they try to be ready before the new law goes into effect on July 1.

Among other things, under the changed law, towns will be required to post notices for all meetings in a public place that is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Currently public meeting notices are posted on a bulletin board in most town halls.

The revised law also requires an agenda to be posted for every meeting seven days in advance. Meeting agendas must detail items of business and any other subjects the chairman expects to come up. The law still requires 48-hour notice for meetings, but Saturdays and Sundays can no longer be counted as part of the notice period.

So a Monday night meeting must be posted by Thursday night.

The new law will also shift enforcement away from the local district attorney to state Attorney General Martha M. Coakley, who will be charged with appointing the state’s first director of open government to oversee the Open Meeting Law. An advisory committee will include a seat for a newspaper publisher representative.

Critics have taken shots at the revised law for watering down a clause that provides for financial penalties up to $1,000 for violations of the law. The revised version now requires violations to be “intentional” to carry a fine.

The new law also requires any documents that might be discussed during a meeting to be made available to the public beforehand, and establishes stricter rules for keeping minutes. All minutes must be made immediately available to the public at the end of a meeting, regardless of form and whether they have been formally approved.

When the new law takes effect next Thursday, West Tisbury, Chilmark, Aquinnah and Tisbury are planning to place notices and agendas in a binder that will be chained to the outside of the town halls. Oak Bluffs may follow suit, although selectmen have discussed placing a computer screen against a window of the town clerk’s office and have a program scroll through the notices in a constant loop.

Edgartown plans to post meeting notices on a bulletin board in front of town hall. Some towns have invited their legal counsel to host seminars to explain the upcoming changes to members of the boards and committees.

Edgartown held a session with attorney Ronald H. Rappaport this week, and Oak Bluffs plans to hold a session with Mr. Rappaport next Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. in the town hall.

Oak Bluffs town clerk Deborah deBettencourt Ratcliffe said this week she supports the changes. “It’s much better for transparency. Sure it will take some getting used to, but overall I give it a thumbs-up. The more information we can provide to the public, the better,” she said.

But Ms. Ratcliffe said the devil may be in the details.

“You can’t just cancel a meeting anymore without notice, at least not easily. I personally like that change, but it makes things sort of difficult for boards who might want to cancel a meeting on short notice for a variety of reasons,” she said.

Edgartown town clerk Wanda Williams took a matter-of-fact approach to the changes.

“It’s the law, we have to do it, we will make it work. It might be hard at first but we’ll get through it. This is to benefit the public, so we can take a little more on,” she said.

Tisbury town clerk Marion A. Mudge also praised the new law for increasing transparency in town government, but said the implications of the changes may not be known for a few months.

“I applaud anything that helps our meetings be more open. But I am not sure this is going to answer all the problems. I worry it is actually going to create more problems in some cases. Our interior bulletin board is not sufficient to post all these meetings; we already have very little space. This will create logistical problems for us,” she said.

Aquinnah selectman Camille Rose also questioned some aspects of the revised law.

“There is no question it’s going to be a challenge. For example, closing the agenda seven days in advance, that could actually slow things down. People have a right to know what will be discussed at a meeting in advance, but what if something comes up last minute?” she said. “It seems like this is especially hard on the small towns, but we’ll wait and see. We will make the changes and we will make it work. In the end I think the changes will be positive, it’s just going to be bumpy at first.”