Library Visit With Cheryl McCoy

On Monday, Our class visited with Cheryl McCoy, who is the Coordinator of General Collections and Government Documents. She made it very clear that most of the public records for this class are easily accessible because public records in the state of Florida are open to the general public.

She explained that there will be times when we will find public records very easily while there are times when they won't be as easy to find because of different circumstances. Public Records at the University of South Florida can be found on the first floor of the library.

At the University of South Florida, we have access to almost any public records available except for student records. Social Security Numbers are only available for investigative usage.

When finding about a certain person or place, we need primary sources. Many people believe that the newspaper is a primary public record. On the contrary, McCoy pointed out that newspapers are not public records nor are they primary; they are secondary sources that have primary sources that contributed to the articles in the newspaper.

McCoy also gave our class some websites to start our searches for public records for our assignments in the future. She recommended IDigAnswers.com, where she explained that E-newspapers are more technologically advanced when it comes to getting the information as well as obtaining the information out there. But at the same time, that information can get you in trouble (freedom of information).

Another good place to start are the county websites like the Hillsborough County official website. On that website, you can find the minutes for any of the meetings you search for as well as the agenda for upcoming meetings.

Cheryl McCoy's seminar helped several of us understand how easy it is to find the public records, but as previously stated from the last blog post, it is hard to obtain those public records.