It was quite a sight. As the demand for electronic data grows, governments must find ways to make such information available to the public. A booklet from the Center for Technology in Government at the University of Albany, SUNY, uses a hypothetical example of a children's information database to guide governments in designing data programs.
Nobody has time to keep up with every research study.
But for the subject of social service programs, the Pew Partnership for Civic Change has made it easy. The report covers a variety of subjects related to social services, from families and children to living-wage jobs. In the realm of performance measurement and performance management, public works is where the rubber meets the road. Two books from the American Public Works Association, both written by William B. Cook, provide both the big picture and practical steps for public works managers who want to utilize these emerging managerial tools. The Urban Institute's Comparative Performance Measurement serves as a primer on the subject, taking readers through the steps to set a project's scope, collect the data, determine meaningful categories and report the information.