For Jay Mendell's book on overcoming stigma in fund raising, please surf to http://black-sheep-library.com/order-now-black-sheep-fundraising.htm  That's Black Sheep Fundraising: Obtaining Dollars Despite Stigma and Prejudice toward Abortion, AIDS, Alcoholism, Birth Control, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Drug Abuse, Eating Disorders, Gambling, Homelessness, Homosexuality, Mental Disorders, Partner Violence,  Sex Education, Teenage Pregnancy, the Unemployed, the Ex-Offenders, the Illegal Immigrants, the Juvenile Offenders, the Elderly, and Other Outcast Causes .

Click here to add your name to a free electronic mailing list for the latest Florida grants information. Click here for the flyer and registration form for our fall 2001 grant programs in Fort Lauderdale and Jupiter. 

Public Affairs Information on the World Wide Web: 

Jay S. Mendell, Ph. D., Professor of Public Administration
(mendell at bellsouth dot net)

Here is a link to Jay's other Internet resources and syllabi.
Here is a link to  Jay's other training sessions.
Here is how to get a free Internet account.

Horrible example #1. Freed sex offender charged again, this time in Oakland Park By ARDY FRIEDBERG, Sun-Sentinel, Web-posted: 12:20 a.m. Jan. 12, 2000

A sex offender released from prison in October over the objections of prosecutors who wanted to keep him
in a psychiatric hospital under the state's Jimmy Ryce Act was charged with another sex crime, Oakland Park
Police said on Tuesday.

Rubin Delgado, 33, who was on probation, was arrested early Monday morning and charged with committing
a lewd and lascivious act on a minor. The victim was the 11-year-old daughter of the family he was staying with
after his release. The child's mother said she had no knowledge of Delgado's record. She had not been told by probation officials or the suspect's family that he was a sex offender.

Check the Florida registry of sex offenders and see what was available on the alleged offender in Oakland Park.

The extent and variety of information available on the Web.

• Some state and city resources in the U. S.
• Hold on to your hat! A gigantic database of databases, many of them in public affairs and government. A slow loader, but worth the wait. For   instance, see the section on government.
• American Information Network on a variety of public records.
• Some items found on the World Wide Web: 10-k, 10-q, 8k, accidents, addresses and telephone numbers, ambient monitoring, annual reports, appeals, arrests, aviation, aviation records, background checks, bankruptcy, banks, bills, birth, budgets, building inspectors, campaign, census, charitable organizations, child care, city clerk, community profiles, company news, contractors, contracts, corporate registration, corporate and trade names, corporation records, count clerks, county recorders, courts--criminal, civil, other, credit unions, credit information, crime statistics, crime, criminal history, criminal court, criminal records, death, demographics, dentist, disasters, divorce, divorce, docket, driver and vehicle info, driver, economic data, Edgar, Edgar, education and employment, election officials, elections, emergency, environmental, environmental quality, escapees, examining boards, fatalities, federal tax liens, federal departments, federal courts, federal records center, FEMA, fictitious or assumed names, financial institutions, firefighter, foundations, gazetteers, genealogical, geodata, geographic names, health statistics, how government works, how government works, inmates, insurance regulators, jails, judgments, labor market, land records, laws, legislation and regulations, legislature, licenses, regulations and permits, licensing, limited partnerships, limited liability company, litigation and civil judgments, lobbyists, maps, marriage, marriage, medical board, medical, military service, military installations, military records, motor vehicles, national archives, news and current events, parolee, personal financial disclosure, place names, planning, predators, press releases, prisons, property assessment, property appraiser, public health databases, public schools, real estate and assessor, real estate fannie mae hud , real estate sales, real estate license, regulations, regulations, rules, sales tax registration, school indicators, school report cards, SEC and other financial data, secretary of state, securities offer and trading registrations, security regulators, security brokers, sex offenders, social security, social indicators, speeches, state tax liens, state courts, state data centers, state investigated accident reports, state archives, state courts, statues, statutes, tax and other involuntary liens, tenant, thematic maps, trademark, trademarks patents and copyright, UCC, UCC, UCC, vehicle and ownership, vital records, vital statistics, voter registration, votes, warrants, workers' compensation records, workers’ compensation.

Here are tutorials you can study later.

• Demystifying  documents on the Internet, from U. Buffalo. Lots of action, little talk.
• The Poynter Institute explains public records databases.
• Computer-Assisted Journalism: An Overview and A Power Reporting Bookshelf.
• "Finding People on the Web" and "Sleuthing for People Online"
• Public records guides from U. Colorado.
• Here are the books we used to prepare this workshop: Dennis King, Get the Facts on Anyone and Sankey and Flowers, Public Records Online.

The federal Freedom of Information Act and Florida's public documents laws.

• The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information. Specimen FOIA request letter.
• Fill-in-the-blanks FOIA letter generator.
• South Florida Water Management District's policy on Florida's Public Records Law.
• First Amendment Foundation and its guide to Florida's Government-in-the-Sunshine laws, open meetings, and public records.

News and media.

• Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, and Palm Beach Post.
• Archives for Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, and Palm Beach Post. 
• Newspapers Online.
• Yahoo! on news and media.

Virtual libraries. Britannica Online.

World Wide Web Virtual Library.

InfoMine at U. California

Argus Clearinghouse

A typical online university library: Florida Atlantic University and FAU's online collections.

Find your own library on line.

Maps and census. Maps at Northwestern University.

Tiger maps from Census Bureau.

Public opinion and social science data. Public opinion from Clemson U., from the Library Research Service., from U. Miami.

You won't believe this site on social science data.

Benchmarks, best practices, and more..

Government documents, data, statistics, and reports. University of Michigan's Documents Center.

U. Michigan on Local Governments and Politics, the jumping off point for state, county, and city documents.

FedStats, for statistics. Search through FedStats. FedStats on Florida.

City and county data (1988, 1994) from the Geospatial and Statistical Data Center, U. Virginia.

NASIRE, National Association of State Information Resource Officers.

What to do if you cannot find what you want in one of the links above: How to cope with overly "hyped" commercial Web sites.

Two search engines that avoid over-hype: Google and FAST.

Fine tuning FAST, to avoid commercial sites.

What to do if you cannot find what you want in one of the links above: Here are two search engines that will try to make sense of your inquiry,

Ask Jeeves-

Oingo

What to do if you cannot find what you want in one of the links above: The art of snowballing. 

Using Google Scout. Here is a search pre-set for birth rates.

If you like "http://www.ph.dhr.state.ga.us/" then enter "link:http://www.ph.dhr.state.ga.us/" in Alta Vista. Here is the result.

What to do if you cannot find what you want in one of the links above: Brute force approach. Local client searches.