When an elected official, candidate or other public figure claims to reside in one place but actually resides elsewhere, they become vulnerable to allegations of carpetbagging, potentially resulting in disqualification to hold an elected office or other legal consequences. Two recent instances of suspected carbetbagging illustrate the ways in which public records can be used to demonstrate how a person does not actually reside at their claimed residence.

Following the recent expenses scandal that has shaken up British Parliament, this week Prime Minister Gordon Brown has appointed World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee to help make British government data more Internet accessible to the public over the next few months.

When vetting a company or business that manufactures a product, one important resource is to submit a FOIA request to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for any complaints related to the company. While the CPSC provides some statistics and general information online, more specific inquiries must be done on a case-by-case basis.

The political scandal currently unfolding in Britain, in which numerous Members of Parliament have secretly billed taxpayers for reimbursement of their personal expenses, highlights the different approaches to Freedom of Information laws on opposite sides of the Atlantic. And interestingly, these records might not have been made public were it not for the efforts of an American journalist.

Business owners can use public records requests to learn typically hard-to-find details about their competitors' prices and business practices by requesting contracts and purchase orders whenever a competitor does business with a government agency (municipal, county, state or federal).

In our last blog entry, we discussed how to research such lobbying activity - here we will cover how to learn the results of those lobbying efforts. Continue reading for several search methods to determine whether a lobbyist's efforts secured government money for their client.

The Senate Office of Public Records' Lobbying Disclosure Act Database provides useful tools for searching through federal lobbyist filings to learn which companies and organizations have contracted lobbyists to advance their legislative interests or seek federal funding.

Making public record requests to different states requires good preparation and knowledge of the process, as each state has its own laws regulating the release of public records. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press' Open Government Guide is a resource that can help whenever you need to make a request to an out-of-state agency.

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.

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.