This course includes an introduction to the Inform USA Standards and an overview of the various ways in which I&R services operate (it is appropriate for experienced I&R practitioners).

This course is designed for anyone filling any role in any I&R organization!

When you have successfully completed this course, you will be able to:

• Explain the nature of I&R
• Identify the variety of roles performed by an I&R for individuals, families, and communities
• Describe the importance of the Inform USA Standards

Database Curators in Information and Referral (I&R) programs create and maintain community databases that detail the information that helps bring people and services together. 

This interactive course is for new staff at Information & Referral (I&R) organizations who will be responsible for the maintenance of resource databases. The course provides an overview of the activities of a Database Curator and an insight into some of the challenges of their position. Although they sometimes have different titles in different agencies, there are two main categories of staff within I&R organizations: Community Resources Specialists who work directly with clients, and Database Curators who provide the information needed by the Community Resources Specialists and other community partners. 

Course Objectives

When you have successfully completed this course, you will be able to:

• Identify the functions and purposes of an I&R resource database.
• Demonstrate how the Inform USA Standards outline the processes and methods for ensuring database quality.
• Describe the primary activities and skills of an I&R Database Curator.

Who’s in? And who’s out? These are the questions regularly asked of Database Curators who are responsible for the maintenance of human services databases in accordance with the Inform USA Standards for Professional Information and Referral. This course provides insight into how to make those decisions. It also provides important background information for Information & Referral (I&R) managers and for everyone within the I&R field who needs a better understanding and appreciation of the composition of resource databases. The course covers the challenges of deciding what human service organizations and programs should be included in a resource database and which should be excluded, taking into account the practical reality of balancing the community needs of the resource database with the means available to effectively maintain it.

Being able to convey information that is clear, concise, consistent, and relevant is one of the most critical skills required by Database Curators who are responsible for the maintenance of human services databases in accordance with the Inform USA Standards and Quality Indicators for Professional Information and Referral (I&R). This interactive course covers the structure of I&R database records and the data elements within that structure. It outlines the style considerations for many of those elements, while focusing on 2 of the most important yet challenging tasks confronted by a Database Curator: naming organizations and writing good service descriptions.

Although they sometimes have different titles in different agencies, within Information and Referral (I&R) organizations, there are two main categories of staff: (1) Community Resource Specialists who work directly with clients, and (2) Database Curators who provide the information needed by the Community Resource Specialists and other community partners. Both use the 211 LA County Taxonomy of Human Services. Database Curators use it to index database records, while Community Resource Specialists use it to retrieve database records to find accurate client referrals. The Taxonomy consists of over 11,000 fully-defined terms covering all aspects of human services. This course outlines the structure of the Taxonomy, the different types of Taxonomy terms, and the principles of quality indexing that facilitate information retrieval.

An Information and Referral (I&R) resource database must be accurate and responsive to the creation of new programs and the closure of existing ones. Database maintenance is a standards-driven requirement for I&R services. This course describes the resource database maintenance process, including ways of handling agencies that are not responsive to requests for information. It outlines activities that help I&R services keep up-to-date on changes in the various sectors of health and human services, and stresses the importance of database security.