There are actually enough bloggers consistently writing on FOIA, open government and access to public records that we now have our own Carnival – a rotating group of writers who do regular round ups of the“Best posts from the FOIA-sphere.”

This week, Leslie Graves of State Sunshine and Open Records is our host. I encourage you to take a glance and discover some new blogs.

While I’m in the referral vein let me introduce you to an invaluable Internet research reference manual, The Lawyer’s Guide To Fact Finding On the Internet. Don’t be put off by the word lawyer. This guide is for hands-on researchers who could benefit from an Internet taming charm. And who couldn’t?

The authors are Internet research trainers and this book reflects their expert training instincts in the way the material is organized and presented. This collection of detailed reviews of Web sites – sorted by subject (not a dread alphabetical list) – is a reference manual any level of information researcher can use to find, well, facts! Chapter topics include search strategies, search engines, public records, government sources, finding and backgrounding people and company research. These are just a few areas covered in this 800 page Internet investigator’s bible. Each listing has the Web site location, whether or not a fee is associated with any part of the site, the content you’ll find here, the authors’ rating and tips on how to use the site. View the Table of Contents, the Index and a sample entry to get a sense of just how fabulous a resource the authors have assembled.