Speakgeek's Blog

Cheryl McCoy, “Coordinator for General Collections and Government Documents” presented a lot of great information to our class on Monday. Even though the video in class was a review of the presentation Cheryl gave us, it still carried a lot of worthwhile knowledge.

Cheryl started by showing us our course guide and its location. The course guide is a great tool to help us build a foundation for any of our reports. It includes information about our textbook, but more importantly, it explains beneficial places that hold public records. It holds links to the Florida Sunshine Review webpage, a webpage based on “The Florida Public Records law Handbook,” and other miscellaneous resources regarding public records.

One of my favorite links Cheryl overviewed was the “idiganswers” page. It has an up to date database of all new laws in the “Florida Public Records Handbook.” This is helpful because technology changes at an extremely fast pace. It is important we keep up to date on the laws and know our rights in order to get the information we need. With personal communication tools being used by public officials, there are certain things they may not want the general public seeing. Emails are considered a public record, but since it is a new technology, there are some rules protecting them. With the updated “Florida Public Records Handbook,” this will keep us informed as the current law adapts to our situation.

This session with Cheryl was very informative. Cheryl was able to personalize the session to our class and answer any questions we had. Cheryl was also effective in getting her point across because she didn’t have that strange man interrupting her multiple times like in the video (just joking Dr. Thelen!). Cheryl also offered her personal assistance in the future when looking for any questions regarding public records research.

Mr. Nickens presentation displayed the whole world of public records. While I have heard of public records, I really never thought they were neither of high interest nor as important as they are. In broadcast media it is important to keep your information as factual as possible. Public records can help you do just that.

While public figures are of (general) high interest by the public, they are closely watched. It is these public records Mr. Nickens spoke of that really keep an eye on these individuals and allow us to know and understand what they are doing. Not only does it seem that public records are extremely vital to the operation of government on all levels, but it is also interesting and keeps us in the loop of things.

An interesting segment of Mr. Nickens presentation was when he informed us how public records can help track and bring down corrupt agendas. When a public official has as much power as they do, and are able to spend my tax money, I like having the ability of knowing what my money is being spent on (even though I believe government spending is out of control).

When Mr. Nickens informed us about how public officials are using new technology to communicate in a stealthy way was something that should really make everyone think. All political figures run on the platform that they are going to better their community or country. If everything they do is in the greater publics interest, then why do these things need to happen behind closed doors? While I believe that all individuals are allowed privacy for their personal lives, public officials have taken on a role to make things in the world work better. While they are at work spending my money, I should know exactly where it is going. One interesting fact that was stated by Mr. Nickens was the fact that emails aren’t to be allowed as a public interest. (I ask again) If everything they are doing is for my benefit why does it have to be hidden? When government fights to keep public things private it becomes very scary.

Mr. Nickens presentation was not only informational, but it was a real eye opener. I now know the real importance of public records for the whole country and myself. I hope that with future administrations, the laws on public records open up more then they currently are.