Cheryl McCoy-USF Public Records Resources

Cheryl McCoy is a Coordinator of General Collections and Government Documents for the University of South Florida. She has done a tremendous job of putting together a course guide on the USF libraries web page for my Public Affairs Reporting class. This guide will play an important role in the process of completing my profile on Kevin C. Amber, Florida House Representative. By following the instructions given by Mrs. McCoy I found out how I can easily access public information through the web. That doesn’t mean that all of the records I need are online, but is a good starting point. According to Mrs. McCoy a lot of the public record agencies want people to physically go and pick up the information they need. A great example of this is trying to look up the salaries of all USF professors. I could find the budged of USF in the online public records, but I couldn’t find the exact individual salaries of each professor. Those records can be only found at the USF library for 15 cents a copy.
I realized that the lectures done by Cheryl McCoy and the one done by Tim Nickens have a lot in comment. They both mention that Florida is one of the few states who have open access to public records. Also they both explain the rules of using those records. It was interesting to hear that Governor Charlie Crist, is a strong supporter of public records access for Floridians. With his help journalist can do their investigative reporting to a greater extend and serve the public the way they should be serving it.
I was able to look up what mortgages my sister owns, I was able to find people’s marriage certificates, however I could not look up all the details of a death certificate. Cheryl McCoy said that I am able to access the death certificate, but not able to know the cause of the death. According to her some public record are not available because of personal privacy issues. There is a drawn line for security reasons.
The course guide that Mrs. McCoy has put together for us offers direct access to many government websites and newspapers archives. She said that USF subscribes to the Tribune Newspaper and we are able to access their archives for free through Lexis-Nexis.
I left the room with a bag full of tips on how to access public records through the web which will help me enormous in my journalistic career.

Tim Nickens- St. Petersburg Times

The visit by guest speaker Tim Nickens, editorial page editor at St. Petersburg Times, and trustee at First Amendment Foundation, helped me to expend my knowledge of public records and their value. By listening to Mr. Nickens I realized how helpful public records can be to journalists as well as to the general public. Having the strongest open records in Florida makes it easier for us to keep a check on the illegal actions taken by the government. I was surprised how well St. Petersburg Times was able to use public records in order to investigate the unlawful use of public money by Florida's House Speaker, Ray Sansom. The public in the Tampa Bay Area is fortunate to have a great newspaper with aggressive journalists who know how to keep their eyes on the powerful officials in Florida. Mr. Nickens gave us great tips on how to get prepared for public meetings. it was interesting to find that big decisions which impact the most public budgets are made only in the back room by the three most powerful officials of the State. Legislatures are trying to hide their actions as much as they can from the public because they know they will be criticized every time they step out-of-the-proper way. Now legislatures are using texting or phones conversations to talk about their decision making for important issues rather than having an open public meeting. Technology became a double edge source for public records because officials use it as much as they can to hide their actions. I was surprised to hear that there is an issue in the access of personal vs. public e-mails records for the government officials. Mr. Nickens gave us a great tip on how much fees agencies and government can charge when people request public records. Some of those public record houses try to make their own rules on the fees to control the access of public records. We have to remember, 15 cents a copy is the law for public records. Also, the lowest paid staff member is used to perform the supervision of accessing public records by the public. In recent years the media found a great success in the use of public records in order to keep track of political facts that are being used by government candidates in their campaigns. Journalists are able to follow the truth about political campaigning ads and speeches by using the value of public records. To capture my blog I would say that I am surprised to see how many public records are out there for us to use that we don’t even know about. Public records can only help us to make our lives easier and more successful. Public records are there to show society how government uses their power.

Getting Started

Hello to all blogger colleagues!

Blogging will be my new journey during this Spring Semester 2010.I've heard of blogging and I've read some blogs but I never did it. I am use to writing journals, but I think blogging will be a lot more fun for me and my readers. Welcome to my page!