INFORMATION UPDATE
  November, 2004                              Number 56

 Welcome to INFORMATION UPDATE, the free monthly newsletter 
                 for information seekers.

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IN THIS ISSUE
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   => Do It Yourself - Campaign Donations
   => Did You Know? - The Information Audit
   => Notes, News and Announcements
   => Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

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DO IT YOURSELF - Campaign Donations
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As the dust settles on the 2004 Presidential, Congressional,
State, and Local elections, you may be curious about where
the money came from to fund those long and costly campaigns.

There are a few databases that will shed some light on 
political donations.  You can get some information for free
on these sites, and more if you pay.

The Center for Responsive Politics is a non-profit, non-
partisan organization that offers detailed donor information
on its Opensecrets.org web site at 
http://www.opensecrets.org/index.asp.  The site is divided 
into sections called The Basics, Election Overview, 
Who Gives, Who Gets, News, and Get Local!  The list of Top 
All-time Donors might surprise you.

At MelissaDATA you will find Campaign Contributors among 
others at http://www.melissadata.com/Lookups/index.htm.
Other interesting databases accessible from this site 
include ZIP Home Sales (# of home sales and average
selling price by ZIP Code), a People Finder, and Place
Names in the U.S. with information on over 1,000,000
geographic places.

Political Money Line, home of the FECIinfo database, offers
free access to donors by name, zip code, and employer/occupa-
tion. http://www.fecinfo.com/ The information from the 
Federal Election Commission public records.

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DID YOU KNOW? - The Information Audit
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We usually associate auditing with the IRS, but it's good 
business to apply auditing practices in examining an organi-
zation's information resources and services.

An information audit looks at what kind of information the 
organization has, how the information flows, what the workers
need, and where the gaps are. A thorough audit involves a 
questionaire or survey of all knowledge workers in the 
organization.  In a survey people have the opportunity to 
list the sources they use and to identify their search habits.  
The survey is followed by a series of interviews with key 
information users, gatekeepers, and decision-makers in the 
organization.  The open-ended questions of an interview
permit the participant to describe information gathering
practices and any frustrations or roadblocks that may exist.

The auditor then compiles the results to describe the flow
of information into and around the organization.  This
analysis often identifies opportunities for cost savings
and improved delivery of information within the organization.

The recommendations generated by a thorough information
audit can lead toward greater productivity and better
decision-making within the organization.

Some useful resources on the information audit can be found
in:

Searcher, v10 no7, July/August 2002
http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul02/dobson.htm

Miller Brewing Company Case Study
Special Libraries Association
http://www.sla.org/division/dst/LangleySLA062003.pdf

Shamel Information Services, 858-673-4673

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Notes, News, and Announcements
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The Firefox web browser is now out of beta and officially
launched.  Watch for more in next month's Information Update!
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ 

Information Seekers may now subscribe to Information Update
using the web form at http://shamelinfo.com.  If someone has
forwarded this newsletter to you, why not register for your
own free copy?  Use the form on the Shamel Information
Services web site at http://shamelinfo.com.

Please let us know what you like about Information Update.

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Shamel Information Services Web Site 
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The Shamel Information Services web site at 
http://shamelinfo.com contains Information Update archives. 
Just click on "Newsletters" and check for any issues you 
might have missed.

Cynthia L. Shamel, editor

Shamel Information Services

Telephone: 858-673-4673

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Copyright 2004 Shamel Information Services

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