Recently, the State Library has been drawing attention to various state agencies in their Wednesday Word blog. Many of these are great tools for citizens, such as a site to check if you have unclaimed property, or a site to check your local school’s performance report. But it has many other links of great interest to scholars, as well. Criminal justice majors will benefit from the Appellate Case Search, history majors from the State Historic Architecture and Archaeology Research Database, and education majors from the statistical data from the Indiana Department of Education. There’s a lot to benefit any IU student!
The series is reproduced from the State Library’s website below:
With the plethora of information available on the internet, it can be difficult to sort out “the best” from all “the rest.” The official website of the State of Indiana, www.in.gov, provides various ways to search or link to government information on state agency pages. But how will you know to look for official sources of information if you don’t know that a specialized database or resource even exists? Let’s take a moment to highlight some useful resources maintained by Indiana state agencies.
- The Indiana Secretary of State Securities Division provides links to databases you can use to check the licensing and registration of individuals and/or firms in the financial services industry.
- Search the INBiz database for business entities and documents about Indiana public businesses that are registered with the Indiana Secretary of State Business Services Division.
- For both historical and current information about sites, buildings, bridges, and cemeteries around the state, check out the State Historic Architecture and Archaeology Research Database, also called SHAARD, which is maintained by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation & Archeology.
- Additional DNR databases include Water Permits, Water Well Records, Oil & Gas Online Well Records, and an Indiana Beekeepers Swarm List.
- The Indiana Department of Environmental Management provides enhanced access to public records through the Virtual File Cabinet (VFC), an online repository for a vast amount of the agency’s public records.
- The Indiana Roadway Inventory dataset is maintained by the Indiana Department of Transportation and provides mapping data and includes the functional classification of roads, total mileage, owner and the assets assigned to roadway sections.
Indiana Gateway for Government Units collects and provides access to information about how taxes and other public dollars are budgeted and spent by Indiana’s local units of government. Participating state agencies currently include the Department of Local Government Finance, the State Board of Accounts, and the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board.
In our last column we highlighted databases and resources maintained by Indiana state government agencies. Let’s continue the exploration.
The Indiana Transparency Portal (ITP) is designed to give Indiana taxpayers an inside look into Indiana State Government spending and operations. The ITP contains information ranging from agency budgets to state contracts and agency performance measures. Agencies contributing data and information to the portal include: State Budget Agency, Department of Revenue, State Treasurer, Office of Management and Budget, State Board of Accounts, and Indiana Economic Development Corporation.
The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (IPLA) licenses professions as set in statute by the Indiana General Assembly. The governor appoints members of the oversight boards and commissions, and the IPLA staff provides customer support to license almost half a million working Hoosiers. Search and Verify the status of professional licenses and use the License Litigation lookup for disciplinary actions against licensees who have violated practice standards, acted dishonestly, or acted unethically.
Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) provides access to data collected on students, employees, and schools, used for both state and federal reporting. View Annual School Performance Reports, search School and Corporation Data Reports, and much more from the IDOE Data page. Search and verify the status of Indiana teaching licenses in the Indiana Educator License Lookup, a database maintained by the Office of Educator Effectiveness and Licensing (OEEL).
Indiana’s State Land Office serves as the repository for deeds and plats of land previously or currently owned by the State, except for state highways and right-of-ways that are housed in the Indiana Department of Transportation, and state universities’ deeds that are kept at each university. The State owns 377,000 acres of land, and the office maintains approximately 6,000 deeds and draft overview maps of state properties in a GIS (Geographic Information System), which can be accessed through the Indiana State Land Office Parcel Viewer.
In this week’s column, we’ll start out with two Executive Branch agencies and then “branch out” to explore several more database resources maintained by the Judicial Branch of State government.
Search IndianaUnclaimed.gov, a database maintained by the Office of the Indiana Attorney General, to see if you have assets waiting to be claimed. Searching is simple and free – just enter your name and search to see if you find a match. If your search returns no results, revise your search, and try again. Search all of the names you have ever used, including your maiden name and nicknames, making sure to look up common misspellings of your name. Consider checking for the names of your grandparents, great-grandparents or other relatives who have passed away. To protect individuals listed, any “Total Cash Value” over $100.00 is not specified, but you can find out the details when you submit your claim.
The State Archives Division of the Indiana Archives and Records Administration (IARA) has created online indexes to historical records that the agency protects and maintains. Use the Indiana Digital Archives site to search across multiple indexes at once. Choose “detailed search” to perform an advanced search of specific indexes to collections of state hospital records, correctional institution records, military records, naturalization records, and various historical court records. The indexes help provide a point of access to these primary-source and historical documents.
Indiana Supreme Court’s Division of State Court Administration provides access to the mycase.IN.gov website, a platform for online court services. At no cost, the public can search for selective information about non-confidential cases in Indiana courts that use the Odyssey case management system. Case numbers, names of parties involved, and/or attorneys are searching options.
Another Judicial Branch resource is the Appellate Case Search, which provides information about cases in the Indiana Supreme Court, the Indiana Court of Appeals, and the Indiana Tax Court. Additionally, the Indiana Roll of Attorneys is a searchable listing of all attorneys licensed to practice law in Indiana. This online service is provided by the Clerk of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Tax Court to deliver specific attorney information to the public. Each attorney’s record includes license status, disciplinary history, contact information, and any other names the attorney has practiced under.
Any questions about finding what you need? Ask us at iueref@iue.edu!