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State Agency Databases Activity Report: September 17, 2011
The past few weeks have been a busy time at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. Part of what has kept us busy was the first official quarterly "link check" of our pages. This is a new initiative designed to keep project pages fresh. Thanks to the many volunteers who spent the last week checking and fixing page links and posting the date of link checking to their page. ORPHAN NEWS A big thank you to Carlos A. Diaz for adopting Mississippi. He fixed all the broken links and added a number of new resources. Now the official list of unadopted orphans stands at just two Rhode Island and Texas. I still think it would be a public service for someone to adopt Gov. Rick Perry's home and expand the list of Texas databases in order to provide a broader view of the Texas record. I'd do it if I didn't have Arizona in addition to Alaska. If you're a librarian in either Texas or Rhode Island, I'd really appreciate it if you would forward this message to appropriate listservs in your state. If you're interested in either Texas or Rhode Island, check out our volunteer guide at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/SADATFS_Volunteer_Guide and then send me an e-mail if you'd like to adopt one of the above states. If you adopt a state, be prepared to put your name and contact information on the main project page AND your state page within two weeks of receiving your wiki login. See the Volunteer Guide for more details. TRANSFER NEWS Not sure if this was mentioned in a previous report, but Liz Paulus has taken over the Oregon page. WIKI ACTIVITY See our last seven days of activity at http://tinyurl.com/statedbs for a blow by blow description of changes to the page. Here are a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED CALIFORNIA (Joel Rane) Publicly Traded Disclosure Search - This search allows you to search for all publicly traded corporations that have filed a Corporate Disclosure Statement with the Secretary of State, search the full text of information contained in a specific statement, and view abstracts of reported information. Searchable by corporation name, the names of officers, or an auditor name; there is also an advanced search. INDIANA (Kimberly Brown-Harden) Oral Arguments Online - Oral arguments are webcast live and are available in Windows Media format. The link to view a live webcast will be available two minutes prior to the start time of an argument, and no sooner, unless the courtroom proceedings are delayed. The link to the archived video and the audio podcast (if available) will be accessible two hours after the start time of the hearing. Can search the arguments by keyword, title, case number, summary, etc. Also able to browse by year,court, month, and county. MISSISSIPPI (CARLOS A. DIAZ) Market Development Company Search - This database is part of the Make Mine Mississippi marketing campaign so people can get in touch with Mississippi companies. CHANGES TO SUBJECT PAGES BIOGRAPHICAL DATABASES North Carolina Builders & Architects: A Biographical Dictionary - This biographical dictionary highlights architects and builders who have produced North Carolina's architecture for more than 300 years. Clicking on "show more options" opens up Gender, Race, Trade, Styles & Forms, Building Types, and "Flourished Dates." Records includes locations where the builders and architects did projects. Continue reading
Lost Docs Blog Report on Department and Agency Receipt Postings
Report In addition to the Lost Docs monthly report we at the Lost Docs Blog will also frequently issue different reports and updates. The report that follows focuses on the departments and agencies which are represented by the GPO receipts collected thus far. For future reports we hope to provide more in depth analysis including that of cataloging times. Of the 696 fugitive document receipts ( “false positives” excluded, those with records in the CGP at the time they were reported) the top five departments and agencies, ranked according to the number of receipts received, are as follows, with the department listed and then any agencies within that department for which we received a sizable number of receipts. Please remember that the reporting here is based only on those GPO receipts forwarded to the Lost Docs Project Blog. Our numbers are not based on the total number of fugitive documents reported to GPO.
- Department of Health and Human Services.....194 (28% of total receipts) National Institutes of Health 151 (78% of total HHS receipts,including NCI) National Cancer Institute (NCI) 112 Other agencies and offices within the department 43
- Department of Justice.........125 (18% of total receipts) Bureau of Justice Statistics 13 Office of Justice Programs 10 FBI 7 Other agencies and offices within the department 93
- Department of Interior.....80 (11% of total receipts) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement (formerly MMS) 29 (36% of total Dept. of Interior receipts) National Parks Service 23 Bureau of Land Management 22 USGS 6
- USDA.......43 (6% of total receipts) US Forest Service 7 Other agencies 36
- Department of Commerce.....37 (5% of total receipts) NOAA 34 (92% of total Dept. of Commerce receipts) Census Bureau 3
- If you report a fugitive document to GPO, send your e-mailed receipt to lostdocs@freegovinfo.info. We welcome any item reported to GPO in the past month. It is best if you can send us the receipt the same day you get it from GPO. Some e-mail programs will support auto-forwarding. If so, please consider autoforwarding items where the subject contains "lostdocs submission."
- Visit the blog at lostdocs.freegovinfo.info and comment on the listed items. Comments can include -- Did your library receive the item? Did you find it in the CGP? Do you think the item is out of scope for the CGP? Did you report the item as well and so on.
- Post the blog link to your website or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media.
- Subscribe to the blog feed at lostdocs.freegovinfo.info/feed/ or better yet incorporate the feed into your website or blog.
August Lost Docs Report and Appeal
REPORT For August, we received and posted 4 reports to GPO from librarians reporting documents that had seemingly fallen through the cracks of the cataloging process. The reports were originally sent to GPO during August 2011. This month, of the 4 reported documents posted by us, none have been cataloged, and these 4 items remain listed as "fugitive documents." No documents reported to GPO appeared to already have public CGP records. So there were no "false positives" for the month. Please remember that our listing of "fugitive documents" reports is only as complete as you make it. APPEAL If you like the concept of a public listing of fugitive documents reported to GPO, there are a number of easy ways to help us:
- If you report a fugitive document to GPO, send your e-mailed receipt to lostdocs@freegovinfo.info. We welcome any item reported to GPO in the past month. It is best if you can send us the receipt the same day you get it from GPO. Some e-mail programs will support auto-forwarding. If so, please consider autoforwarding items where the subject contains "lostdocs submission."
- Visit the blog at lostdocs.freegovinfo.info and comment on the listed items. Comments can include -- Did your library receive the item? Did you find it in the CGP? Do you think the item is out of scope for the CGP? Did you report the item as well and so on.
- Post the blog link to your website or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media.
- Subscribe to the blog feed at lostdocs.freegovinfo.info/feed/ or better yet incorporate the feed into your website or blog.
State Agency Databases Activity Report: 9/4/2011
ORPHAN NEWS We had another relatively quiet at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project. The list of orphan states in need of adoption is unchanged from last week: Mississippi Rhode Island Texas If you're a librarian in one of the above states, I'd really appreciate it if you would forward this message to appropriate listservs in your state. As I mentioned last week, the entry of Gov Ricky Perry into the Presidential race could make the Texas page a hot property if someone volunteered to update it. Just think of how Texas' perfomance in the last decade could be documented if there was a one stop place of all of its various databases. If you're interested in one of the above states, check out our volunteer guide at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/SADATFS_Volunteer_Guide and then send me an e-mail if you'd like to adopt one of the above states. If you adopt a state, be prepared to put your name and contact information on the main project page AND your state page within two weeks of receiving your wiki login. See the Volunteer guide for more details. WIKI ACTIVITY See our last seven days of activity at http://tinyurl.com/statedbs for a blow by blow description of changes to the page. Here are a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (Shirl Kennedy) Answers, Please! (Social Services Database) - "Answers, Please! Online offers the public direct access to a network of government and community social service providers via the Internet. By incorporating the latest web technology and the District's mapping system, users may locate programs alphabetically or by program name, topic, keyword, and proximity to an address." NEW MEXICO (Adrienne Walker) EGIS Mapper The EGIS Mapper Application allows users to find and display key features of the data map such as drinking water sources and hazardous waste facilities. The navigation menu to the left covers key topics and functional tools of the map. Click on the Help Using this Tool link located in the upper right corner of the application for explanations and instructions regarding navigation, layers and controls in the creation of your query. In addition to the databases added to project pages, Shirl Kennedy added some resources to our "Not Databases" page at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/Not_Databases, including: Office of Tax and Revenue: Delinquent Taxpayers List "Publication of the delinquent taxpayers' lists below is part of an overall program to encourage voluntary compliance with the District's tax laws." (PDF) Office of the Chief Financial Officer: DC Tobacco Directory "Use the following links to view the Tobacco Directory and any changes to it that may be currently pending. The Tobacco Directory is listed by Manufacturer and is in PDF format. To search by brand family instead of manufacturer, select the search option on the toolbar at the top of the document and type in the exact brand family name. Be sure to include the correct spelling and punctuation to ensure a correct brand search." Office of the Chief Technology Officer: All Online Maps "The District of Columbia offers several online mapping applications highlighting data and information from various fields of interest such as crime statistics, public school profiles, detailed property information and more. The online mapping sites below, listed in alphabetic order, present data coming from agencies across the District government. Click each online map to read a brief introduction and to access the site." More than 30 are currently available. Why does our project have a "not databases" page? Since the project got underway in June 2007, a number of people have submitted resources, that while useful, fell outside the scope of this project. Either they weren't really databases or they were not published by a governmental entity belonging to a given state. But they are useful and so we're loath to just throw them away. Continue reading
State Agency Databases Activity Report 8/28/2011
ORPHAN NEWS This week was relatively quiet at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project. The list of orphan states in need of adoption is unchanged from last week: Mississippi Rhode Island Texas It would be particularly nice to have Texas adopted out as an accurate annotated list of Texas databases would likely be used by people evaluating Governor Rick Perry's record now that he's running for President. If you're interested in one of the above states, check out our volunteer guide at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/SADATFS_Volunteer_Guide and then send me an e-mail if you'd like to adopt one of the above states. If you adopt a state, be prepared to put your name and contact information on the main project page AND your state page within two weeks of receiving your wiki login. See the Volunteer guide for more details. WIKI ACTIVITY See our last seven days of activity at http://tinyurl.com/statedbs for a blow by blow description of changes to the page. Here are a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED NEW MEXICO (Adrienne Walker) Licensed Professional Engineers and Professional Surveyors - Search for licensed professional engineers and licensed professional surveyors by license number, last name, first name, city, state, zip, license type, branch or status (there is a key available on the search page to assist in the selection of license type, status or branch). New Mexico Coal Mines Query - This database displays information from the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. This site includes general data and statistics about active mines, notices of violation and water quality samples. LOUISIANA (Rita Franks) Restaurant Inspections - This state website provides access to restaurant inspections that include critical and non-critical violations, along with corrective actions that have been taken or are pending. DATABASES REMOVED MISSOURI (Annie Moots) Local Telephone Exchange Companies - Searchable by town/city. Continue reading
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