National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a program of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. and the Missouri School of Journalism. Founded in 1989, NICAR has trained thousands of journalists in the practical skills of finding, prying loose and analyzing electronic information.

NICAR also maintains a library of databases containing government data on a wide array of subjects, including airplane service difficulty reports, storm events, FBI crime data, fatal highway accidents, problems with medical devices and federal contracts awarded to private companies. This is just a short list of the more than 40 datasets in the collection.

Data and other NICAR services are only available to journalists or journalism educators/students who are IRE members. Read important legal terms and conditions.

For some of the databases, you can purchase a single state slice or a single year. Others are a compilation of many years. All data come from federal government agencies. Price is determined by the market size of the purchasing organization.

The Database Library also offers specialty work for journalists, such as transferring data from magnetic media (i.e. 9-track tapes) to CD-ROM, and data analysis. Staff will also search our aviation data following a plane crash to find reports of service difficulties, previous accidents or incidents and registration information of that plane.

NICAR has provided data and services to more than 365 news organizations just since Jan. 1, 2000. NICAR has helped journalism organizations ranging from The Wall Street Journal and NBC News to the Billings Gazette in Billings, Mont., and WQAD-Moline, Ill.

The Database Library is constantly looking for unique and useful government data to add to its collection, and welcomes any suggestions from fellow journalists.

The Database Library is partially supported by The Florence and John Schumann Foundation.

Special thanks to the Chicago Tribune Foundation for supporting the Chicago Tribune Foundation Fellowship.