Delivering Government Data to Lawyers and Journalists

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University has built and maintains a data warehouse that stores data, obtained from federal agencies using the Freedom of Information Act, covering the government's enforcement, staffing, and spending activities. Whenever possible, we ask for transactional data rather than aggregated statistics. Maintaining access to the data, including regular updates, in the face of massive government reorganization, changing data systems, and a changing political environment has proved to be a challenge. Over the years, we have found it necessary to establish a series of validation and verification procedures because the quality of the underlying data systems varies. We merge in geographic, population, and other contextual information that helps to provide a basis for interpretation. This paper will cover some of the problems along with the solutions we've developed in delivering information to lawyers and journalists who often have little or no statistical background.