With our upcoming quarterly link check in mid-December, we’re having increased activity at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States Project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases.
This month is special. Our volunteer guide states that our document specialist volunteers agree to check their links four times a year. Some of us are more active than that, but most of us check links at least quarterly. Unfortunately a few folks haven’t had time in 2012 to update their pages at all. So, the weekend of January 5/6 2013, Daniel Cornwall will be reviewing the “history tab” under each page. Any page (hopefully few in number) that has not been updated by its volunteer will be put out for adoption. So, if you’ve wanted to become part of our project, look at the activity and statistic reports we’ll be issuing in January.
Now, for the activity. As always, you can view a blow-by-blow list of changes for the past two weeks by visiting http://tinyurl.com/statedbs14d. Here are the highlights:
DATABASES ADDED
MICHIGAN (Michael McDonnell)
The Michigan Registered Casino Interest Searchable Database – This database allows you to search for registrants required by law to file a registration under the Casino Registration Act. Only the Greektown, MGM Grand Detroit and Motor City casinos are included in this database.
TEXAS (Ann Ellis)
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Central Registry Query – The Central Registry provides for searches regarding basic information on facilities, organizations and people that are regulated by the Agency. Types of searches include customer, regulated entities, program IDs, and documents.
UTAH (Susanne Caro)
Businesses Registered in Utah – Includes Business Name & Address, Registered Officers, Principals, Partners, Registered Agents, and Addresses.
DATABASES REMOVED
CALIFORNIA (Joel Rane)
Special Education at Certified Nonpublic, Nonsectarian Schools and Agencies formerly at http://www3.scoe.net/npsa/index/index.cfm.
Searchable database for special education services provided by nonpublic, nonsectarian schools and agencies that have been certified by CDE.
NEW MOBILE APPS
MICHIGAN
Michigan Campaign Finance Search – The Michigan CFS (Campaign Finance Search) for the Apple is provided by the Office of the Michigan Secretary of State to deliver mobile, real-time access to the latest Michigan state campaign finance information, viewed as aggregated totals. The application provides mobile access to electronically filed campaign finance information for all state offices, state political committees and quick access to direct cash contributor information, on the go. It allows you to enter name-based exact or close match searches that provide a listing of candidates and/or committees that meet the search criteria. The App is available at the iTunes App Store. An android version of this app is available at the [https://play.google.com/store/devices?hl=en Google Play Store]
HOW VOLATILE CAN A PAGE BE?
While our project is not currently keeping statistics on how often database URLs change, I’m sometimes surprised by the amount of change between page updates. A case in point is California, maintained by Joel Rane. Between August 16th and November 21st, five database URLs changed. In addition another database was dropped by its agency and descriptions or supplementary information for five databases changed as well.
If you are interested in researching the volatility of state agency databases, our state history pages may be helpful to you. Contact Daniel Cornwall for more details.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Latest Comments