The California Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) just released its 2011 Cal Facts report, providing an overview of government spending and the performance of state-funded programs. In addition to publishing numerous policy-based reports, the LAO publishes studies that provide roadmaps for public records researchers.

The New York Times recently reported that British scholars are experimenting with crowd-sourcing to expedite the transcription of 40,000 handwritten documents by philosopher and British social critic Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).

Last week, the American Community Survey (ACS) released its first dataset of five-year estimates for population and housing trends nationwide. The New York Times compiled the five-year estimate based on data collected between January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2009, into a set of interactive maps called "Every City, Every Block."

The Bay Area News Group recently released a database compiling salary data for judges and other California court employees.

The launch of Google Books has made the content of seven million books available and searchable.

Established by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the non-profit Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) provides Canadian legal records available free of charge on the Internet. CanLII maintains an online database compiling legislation with decisions issued by Canadian courts, boards and tribunals.

As promised last August in response to the Bell salary scandal, State Controller John Chiang has collected salary data for all California city and county employees to create an online database. This data has always been public information, but few local governments had made it readily available.

Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal published an article discussing the importance of verifying financial advisers' credentials. The WSJ identified more than 200 credentials that financial advisers append to their names, most of which appear indistinguishable to the average consumer. However, the requirements to earn these credentials varies greatly.

Personal and business financial records are generally not accessible as public records. However, financial assets are typically disclosed in divorce filings and are thus backed into the public record.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posts regular product recalls and safety alerts. Most recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted an online tool for shell eggs and egg products that have been included in the 2010 egg recall.

Technology has enabled digitization of both new videos and those that predate the Internet for online streaming. With more videos becoming available on the Internet, websites are developing speech recognition technology that may eventually lead to closed caption searches - a useful tool for canvassing video content.