Piper Resources State and Local Government on the Net (http://www.piperinfo.com/state/index.cfm) is a useful index for locating Web‐based information on state and local governments. Piper limits inclusion to official state and local government sites, as well as the Web sites of official national organizations that have a state or local government nexus. The criteria for inclusion for state resources is that the servers on which the information exists must be controlled and managed by a state agency, and/or the server must have an obvious state domain name (typically following the www.state.xx.us model). Local links are included if the servers are managed and controlled by a local government agency or are government servers that have a domain name that is obviously a city (containing ci) or county (containing co). Personal sites, Chamber of Commerce sites, neighborhood pages, travel sites and the like are generally excluded.
Piper has been rapidly expanding the content covered in their index, as well as making stylistic changes to the page, over the last several months. This is positive in that it allows for greater “one‐stop shopping” when trying to locate state and local information. However, the rapid changes can also prolong searches, as users must become accustomed to changes in the site if they have not visited for a while. Recent additions to content include: government information for US territories such as Guam; federal government sites with a state nexus such as the Census Bureau; and national organizations with a local nexus such as the National Association of Black County Officials. Stylistically, the site recently added a searching side‐bar on the main index page. This saves users from having to scroll down to the search button which jumps to a separate search page.
Although Piper Resources has been striving to make its search engine more readily accessible, I frequently find this approach to locating information cumbersome. Personally, when I am using the index, I am usually trying to locate a specific agency or branch of government’s page, but I might not know exactly what the agency is called in that particular state. In such cases, I think it is easier to select the state you are interested in and then scroll through the subsequent listing of sites you retrieve looking for the agency or branch of interest. If users try locating this information by typing in a search, they will need to know the exact words describing what they are looking for. For example, the terms “Iowa judicial” will retrieve information on courts in Iowa, but the terms “Iowa courts” and “Iowa judiciary” will not. The scrolling method is fairly easy, as the contents for each state are set up in a uniform pattern. Generally, each state’s listing contains the same categories, and within the categories the pages are listed alphabetically. The categories follow this pattern: state home page; statewide offices; the legislative branch; the judicial branch; the executive branch (which includes the bulk of state agencies); boards and commissions; regional; counties; cities; other; libraries. So, once users are familiar with the categories, they can scroll to the information of interest fairly quickly.
Occasionally, Piper fails to promptly update the link for a Web page that has moved to a new site, leading users to wonder how frequently the index is updated. They seem to be working on correcting this, however, and now typically include a date behind each state’s link, indicating when the information has been updated. Piper also welcomes feedback regarding its site through various methods. It provides an electronic comment form, an e‐mail address, and also an “add a link” form if a link should be added to the site, or an existing link needs to be modified.
Various alternatives to the site are available on the Web. NASIRE (http://www.nasire.org) may offer a better alternative to some searchers due to the fact that rather than having topics listed under each state, the states are listed under topical categories. For example, selecting agriculture from the page will provide you with a list of links to each state’s agricultural agency listed alphabetically by state. The Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov) also provides a state and local government Web site, but it is not as well organized, nor does it cover the breadth of information that the Piper site does. Yahoo also has a state directory that covers some of the same information as the Piper site, but the Yahoo site also includes commercial sites and organizational sites that fall outside of the Piper Resources criteria for inclusion. For those users who wish to include such sites in their retrieval, the Yahoo site would be worth using, but for those who prefer to limit searching to official sources of information, it is best to stay with the Piper site. The Piper site may be able to link to state or local sites that provide some of the same information covered in various print resources such as the State Leadership Directories or the Book of the States. However, none of the Web products mentioned above can sufficiently supplant the information and ease of use provided in these and other print resources. Piper provides a nice complement to commonly‐held print resources, but should not be used as a full substitute.
Overall, the Piper Resources State and Local Government on the Net Web site provides easy access to a large variety of official information relating to state and local governments. I recommend it for any library that serves patrons who have an interest in state and local government.
