How to find public records when simple Google searches fail

1. FINDING PUBLIC
RECORDS

2. JOURNALISM GUIDE

3. OBJECTIVES
• To identify how search engines work and how that impacts your access to information
• To explore tools for finding public records

4. TAKE THE QUIZ
Go
to http://www.socrative.co
m/.
Click on "Student login."
Enter the room name
COMMRESEARCH

5. ANSWERS
• When you type keywords in the Google search box, Google then searches the internet
for results.
– FALSE
• Google's relevancy ranking puts the best, most reliable sources at the top of your
results.
– FALSE
• There are certain types of information that are not able to be found by Google.
– TRUE
• When two people type the same exact keywords in the Google search box, the results
will be exactly the same.
– FALSE
• Google is not a good place to start for complex information problems.
– TRUE

6. HOW DOES
GOOGLE WORK?

7. THREE PARTS OF A SEARCH ENGINE

8. WHAT DOES
THIS MEAN FOR
YOUR SEARCH?

9. N O T E V E R Y T HI N G I S
F I N D A B L E B Y S E A R C H
E N G I N E S
Hidden web is estimated
to represent most of the
internet
Consists largely of
database content (like
library databases and
government statistical
tables)

10. P A GE S A R E R A NK E D
B Y A L GORI THM
Google has over 200
factors, only some of
which are known
Includes personalization
which leads to filter
bubbles

11. I N T E R E S T E D P A R T I E S
W I L L A L W A Y S T R Y T O
B E A T T H E S Y S T E M
Search engine
optimization (SEO)
Content farms
Google tweaked
algorithm in 2011 and
may again with
Knowledge-Based Trust

12. FINDING PUBLIC
RECORDS( S I N C E Y O U C A N ’ T J U S T G O O G L E S E A R C H
F O R T H E M )

13. ASK YOURSELF, “WHO WOULD WANT
TO COLLECT THIS INFORMATION?”

14. START AT THE SOURCE
FIND SOURCES
• Directories
• Associations
• Journalism guide
• Citation trails
• Google search for a
homepage
• Government homepage for
county or state
GOOGLE TRICKS
• Keyword search for topic and…
– “LibGuides”
– “database”
– “government”
– “association” or “organization”
– “directory”
• Related:URL for similar sites
– Ex. Related:http://censusreporter.org/
• Site:URL to search within a site

15. TEST YOUR
SKILLS
G E T I N T O G R O U P S O F 2 - 3
L O G I N T O S O C R A T I V E , F O U N D O N T H E
“ F I N D Y O U R C O U R S E ” P A G E

16. SPY ON YOUR NEIGHBORS
1. Go to the page for finding public records on the journalism guide.
2. Click in to the Free Public Records Directory.
3. What is the market value of 3501 High Countryside Dr. Grapevine, TX?
4. Who was the original owner (a person, not the builder/company)?
ANSWERS: $313,189
Steve Henderson

17. HOW DIRTY IS YOUR LOCAL
RESTAURANT?
1. Come up with a search strategy for finding the health inspection record for Chito’s
Mexican Restaurant on 75 in Plano.
2. What was their grade on the latest report and what were they cited for?
ANSWER: B

18. FUN WITH THE CENSUS
1. Go to www.censusreporter.org found on the public records page of the journalism
guide.
2. Find the demographic spread of Plano, TX.
3. What is the median income for Plano?
4. Find how people in Plano, TX commute to work by gender. (Hint: the keyword search
here is VERY picky.)
5. How many women living in Plano, TX carpooled to work?
ANSWER: $81, 571 median income, 5,049 women carpooled to work

19. CRIME WATCH
1. How many homicides occurred in Plano, TX in 2008?
2. Be sure to find official government data.
ANSWER: 7

20. ANY QUESTIONS?