The California Controller's Office has just updated the Local Government Compensation Reports database with salary data for public employees at California agencies, including transit and waste disposal agencies as well as fire and police departments.
Read MoreFacebook Users Can Download Profile Information
Facebook users can download and save a zip file of information tied to their Facebook accounts. Each user can only access his personal account information which will give users a clear idea of the type of information that they have publicly shared with other Facebook users.
Read MoreJFK Records Now Digitally Archived and Available Online
The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation recently announced the launch of its online database of newly digitized records from the JFK Presidential Archives. These records have always been available in person at the library, but efforts to digitally preserve them and make them available to the general public on the Internet have now been realized through the Access to a Legacy program.
Read MorePartnership of Library of Congress and Universal Music Group Will Put Newly Digitized Music Online
Financial realities and overlapping interests have led to an agreement that will create a set of new set of digitized music online. The Universal Music Group agreed to give the Library of Congress approximately 200,000 recordings created between 1926 and 1948 that have been sitting in underground storage.
Read MorePublic Flight Tracking Information – Useful for Everything from Following the Coaching Carousel to Competitive Intelligence
Aircraft tracking sites like FlightAware assist with the verification of an individual's whereabouts - whether that individual is the athletic director at a major university or a high ranking corporate officer dropping in on a potential acquisition or merger target. When combined with other data points (i.e., a coaching search is underway or the plane landed in the small airport next to the company's biggest competitor), this information could be used to deliver solid analysis.
Read MoreLearning Where Records Live
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.
Read MoreAcademic Community Using Crowd-Sourcing to Transcribe Handwritten Documents
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).
Read MoreAmerican Community Survey Data Available For Download and As Interactive Maps
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."
Read MoreCalifornia Court Salary Database Now Available Online
The Bay Area News Group recently released a database compiling salary data for judges and other California court employees.
Read MoreGoogle Books Makes Content of Millions of Books Searchable
The launch of Google Books has made the content of seven million books available and searchable.
Read MoreComparison of Worldwide Public Records
To sum up our worldwide public records series, we've prepared a chart comparing key aspects of the laws enacted in the US, Canada, the UK and India.
Read MoreUnited Kingdom: Freedom of Information (FOI) Act
The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was enacted in 2000 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to replace a 1994 code that outlined voluntary guidelines for releasing government information. Its guidelines extend to England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while Scotland has its own Freedom of Information Act.
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