You are browsing the archives of April 2009.

Hyperwords, a plug-in available for the Firefox Internet browser, provides several useful features to make internet research more efficient. Hyperwords works by opening a pop-up menu next to any word on a web site you select and provides options for searching a wide variety of information related to that word, all without leaving the original page.

While disclosure is voluntary at the federal level, there is some early momentum among legislators to provide their daily appointment calendars on their websites.

The East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Arizona, received a Pulitzer prize for its investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). The Tribune spent several months submitting public records requests related to MCSO operations and conducting interviews to learn more about the efficacy of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s high publicized illegal immigration enforcement program. The project provides an interesting case study on how to use law enforcement agency statistics to understand department trends and priorities.

One underutilized resource available to researchers seeking information about a subject’s past employment was highlighted by last week’s announcement that several hundred thousand pages of material from the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush archives are now public in their respective presidential libraries. Often overlooked, these documents are useful for employment verification and fully vetting descriptions that people have made about what they did when they worked for these public figures.

Twitter has become a vital social networking site for people of all backgrounds to keep their “followers” updated on their every move. Somewhat unknowingly, these people are simultaneously creating a public record for all members of the Twitter community.

A growing number of states are posting salary data online. While this data has always been public, with limited exceptions, it hasn’t always been readily accessible.

A few weeks ago, we posted about PublicResource.org and its effort to gather and post federal court records online via the federal PACER system. The organization has now made nearly 20 million pages of federal court documents available online.

Recently, the State of California posted the Reporting Transparency in Government web site.

Previously available only in person, White House Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure reports (SF 278s) are now available via e-mail.

Given the poor economy and the resulting decrease in spontaneous donations, more charities have been hiring telemarketing companies to solicit donations over the phone. Charity officials justify the low return typically associated with these programs on the supposition that recent donors are more likely to repeat their donations in the future. However, watchdog groups such as Charity Navigator disagree that the fees paid to telemarketers are worthwhile. Here’s how you can use public records to get the facts and draw your own conclusion.