The public should know what the government has been doing from the government record centers that are nowadays available online instead of people having to hunt them all over as was the case in the early days.

Government record centers carry information that is of use to the public as they can know how the government functions and how important decisions that impacted their lives had been taken. It is within their rights to know in a democracy and in the US information is made available to the public unless there are security reasons for the government not to disclose. People know how the elected representatives are functioning as well as get an idea of the government decision making process in the past when ever they were faced with a crisis. 

Government record centers offer information for a fee as well as require the person searching for information to get registered. Record centers can be of various types as the information volume is extensive and sometimes not possible for a single online site to offer everything from the same place. Archives like the NARA or National Archives and Records Administration is a treasure for everything America stands for and the glorious past. Government records contain information from the days of the pioneers to the settlers, then the later day immigrants who too became settlers.

Immigration and the ethnic composition varied over the ages and the archive documents that too. Important American landmark decisions and engagements with the world are documented from the past dating back to the last two decades of the 18th century. Documents from then on were archived but not in an organized manner. It was only in 1934 when the NARA was established by FDR that the preservation of documents, photos, video, films and data took on anew meaning.

But due to the massive content, much was rejected over the years as it was not considered of any importance to the public. Only some of it was considered useful for legal and history buffs that needed preserving. As a government record center, NARA managed to digitalize a fraction of the stuff as it was not possible to do the rest.

Other government record centers carry much information as it is much easier for the public to locate there instead of earlier times when such an exercise was a big hassle. People had to fill up several forms and answer questionnaires before being allowed to get their information. From criminal records, legal rulings, court cases to name data bases for searching long lost friends or relatives and death records—-all are available online in government record centers nowadays on the payment of a fee and registration. 

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