DLP Dispatch #9
Hello, welcome to the ninth edition of the Data Liberation Project’s newsletter. Liberated: Department of Labor database listings. Plus: a new page for liberated documentation, the latest batch of FOIAs, and other news from the data-FOIA-sphere.
Liberated: Department of Labor database listings
Earlier this year, the Data Liberation Project (in collaboration with Marc DaCosta) sent the Department of Labor a request for two categories of records:
- All “file plans,” which describe the kinds of records a government agency holds and how/where they’re stored.
- All “electronic information system listings,” a similar concept but for databases.
On June 15, 2023, the DOL sent us a set of files, accompanied by a determination letter regarding the request. In all, after un-zipping the files, there appear to be 425 documents. By format: 236 Microsoft Word files, 99 Excel files, 70 PDF files, 13 .msg files, and 7 .rtf files. (Note: Some of the files are duplicates or near-duplicates of one another.)
The Data Liberation Project is making the files available to all. You can access them in two ways:
- As a folder on Google Drive, available to download in bulk
- As a project on DocumentCloud, where you can search across all records (excluding the 13
.msgfiles)
The Data Liberation Project has also created a spreadsheet listing the files, indicating their:
- Directory
- Filename
- Extension (e.g.,
.xlsx) - Size (in kilobytes)
- Subagency for which the file was created
- Category of record (file plan, electronic information listing, etc.)
- Brief notes from the Data Liberation Project, clarifying the file’s purpose/contents
(Many thanks to Jake Zucker, the DLP’s summer intern from the University of Chicago, for his help with this cataloging.)
The Data Liberation Project will be combing through these documents, with the goal of developing future FOIA requests for key databases of public interest. If any databases in particular catch your eye, let us know by responding to this email.
A new page for DLP-liberated documentation
I’ve added a “Documents” page to the Data Liberation Project’s website. On it, you can find links to the documentation records that the DLP has liberated. It includes the DOL records discussed above, plus three other resources:
- A database schema for what appears to be the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service’s case management system (see also: DLP Dispatch #5).
- Documentation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s enforcement database (see also: DLP Dispatch #7).
- An entity relationship diagram for an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission case management system.
The latest batch of FOIAs
Since the last dispatch, the Data Liberation Project has filed three new FOIA requests. They seek:
- Data on the Postal Service’s Rural Route Evaluations (co-requested with Aaron Gordon).
- Data on CFPB’s enforcement matters, a request developed based on the documentation cited above.
- Select data from the Department of Defense’s Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database (co-requested with independent researcher Julia Kieserman).
You can read more about each request via the links above. If you have any questions about them, please do ask.
Elsewhere in the data-FOIA-sphere
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The Globe and Mail has launched Secret Canada, an investigation into the country’s "broken freedom of information system." For it, reporters “filed hundreds of freedom of information requests to every major public body at the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal level for data on the FOI requests they’d received.” They’ve compiled their results into a database of 320,000+ FOI summaries and metadata. Read more: “Why an FOI rejection ‘radicalized’ this Globe reporter,” by Tom Cardoso. [h/t Isadora Borges Monroy]
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Forest Gregg used FOIA to obtain a schema of the National Labor Relations Board’s NxGen case management system.
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Aaron Gordon (of the above-referenced Postal Service request) used FOIA to obtain a spreadsheet of “2,054 whistleblower complaints filed with OSHA by freight rail workers against the seven biggest railroads in the country, known as Class I railroads, since 2013”. Read more: Gordon’s Motherboard story based on the records.
That’s all for now! Thank you for reading, and don’t hesitate to reply. Alternatively, fill out the volunteer form and/or suggestion form.
— Jeremy