In every US State and the District of Columbia, agencies are creating databases of useful information - information on businesses, licensed professionals, plots of land, even dates of fish stocking. Some of this content is available on search engines, but much of it is part of the invisible web. Since July 2007, librarians and other government information specialists have been working on identifying and annotating these databases in one place. We've chased across fifty state web sites so you don't have to! ALA RUSA named this site one of its Best Free Reference Web Sites of 2012.
All content on our project pages may be reused or remixed. Permission is not required. Attribution is appreciated.
We need someone to adopt New Jersey after January 2023.
We need someone to adopt Illinois.
If you would like to adopt a page, please contact susanne.caro@dca.nm.gov
Click on a state name below to find a list of databases by subject. The individuals listed below have agreed to serve as a documents specialist for that particular state, periodically checking the page for broken links, looking for new databases and accepting suggested edits from page visitors.
If a page below says "Available for adoption" and you are interested in taking it over, review the Volunteer Guide. If you can meet the requirements, please contact slrodgers at vcu.edu.
Our project focuses on publicly searchable databases. If you are looking for underlying data, you might try the state data registry maintained at data.gov. It is far from comprehensive but interesting to look through.
Broad Subject Guides
Single Subject Guides
Another parallel project of note is the State Blue Books and Encyclopedias project. The State Agency Databases Project and the State Blue Books Project are done on behalf of the State and Local Documents Task Force of the ALA Government Documents Roundtable. General questions about either project may be directed to Susanne Caro project coordinator.
