According to NARA or the National Archives and Records Administration, government records online and in print of the United States are so much that if the total pages are laid side by side, they could easily circle the globe 57 times. Out of the total information and documents that the United States Federal government has so far affected in the course of operation from the days of its founding, only 1 to 3% is considered important and relevant and open to public viewing.

About 2 to 5% are considered relevant in any given year and safely kept by NARA. Added up from the time of their first creation, government records consist of nearly 9 billion pages of textual records, 7.2 million maps, charts, and architectural drawings, billions of machine readable sets, more than 20 million photographs, 365,000 reels of films and about 110,000 video tapes. They are the only ones still preserved and available for public viewing, for the working of the government—as references and for ready reckoning— for long term research and as a wealth of information to citizens.

You can access some of them online while for other information, you need to go through the rules laid down. Information that is made available to you online include criminal records, speeding tickets, court records and rulings, marriage records and relevant information about people of the United States. Government records contain all information as law abiding citizens disclose everything about themselves. These are publicly available information but they are not for free.

Usually the government charges a large fee from the public for easy access to the wealth of information. You may be an academic or scientist looking for information contained in online government records that is imperative for your research. Social scientists and historians seek information of places, events and individuals for their research while others may need to track and trace links to their missing family tree.

Databases available in online government records can be of many uses. Information is available on driver’s licenses, character references, personal acquaintances, criminal records, court rulings, educational and credit records and much other information not available anywhere except in online government records. While marriage licenses are important for the family tree, criminal records help potential business partners or employees whose job depends on a great deal of trust, property checks for buyers are essential.

Contractor fraud being top of the list, background checks on them can save financial losses to buyers. Reputations of business houses or commercial agencies are all kept as records and available for checking in online government records. Information like these is essential to safeguard the consumer from being victims of possible fraud and financial losses. There are also sites that collect information and allow them to be viewed by the public for a fee.

Reputable sites for online government records accessibility include the webinvestigator and gov-records.

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