IRE Regional Conference

Investigative Reporters and Editors Regional Conference 2000 will be held Jan. 14-15 in Washington, D.C.

The conference, which will be held at the National Press Club, will include panels featuring experts from print and broadcast sharing tips and techniques for winner stories, a computer demo room with daily sessions on computer-assisted reporting topics, vendors and exhibits and reprints of the top investigative work in the country.

See page 15 of this issue for a registration form.

Registration and hotel information for all conferences is available on the IRE Web site at www.ire.org. More information is also available by calling (573) 882-2042.

IRE National Conference

The IRE National Conference 2000 will be held June 1-4, 2000 in New York.

The conference will include an optional CAR day, a computer demo room, TV Show and Tell Room, reprints, vendors and exhibits and a variety of panels featuring some of the top investigative reporters in the country.

Registration and hotel information for all conferences is available on the IRE Web site at www.ire.org. More information is also available by calling (573) 882-2042.

NICAR data library

The NICAR data library is evaluating its collection of databases, and is considering eliminating some of the less popular. They are also looking for new national databases to add to the collection.

If you know of any national databases that you've found useful or think would be a good addition to NICAR, they'd like to hear from you.

The least popular databases being considered for elimination are the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), NHTSA Vehicle Recalls and Complaints, CDC HIV Surveillance data and NASA Air Safety Reporting Program.

If you would like to put in a plea to save any of these datasets, please contact the data library administrators, Dawn Fallik at dawn@nicar.org or Jason Grotto at jason@nicar.org. They are also available by phone at (573) 884-7711.

CAR boot camps

IRE and NICAR has several computer-assisted reporting boot camps scheduled for 2000. These week-long camps provide hands-on training in the use of spreadsheets, database managers and Internet searching from NICAR staff.

The dates for the camps, which are held at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Mo., are: January 5-9, March 26-31, May 7-12, July 21-26, and August 6-11.

Contact John Green at IRE, (573) 882-2772 to check availability. More information about the camps, including registration forms and hotel information, is available on the NICAR Web site, www.nicar.org, under the training section.

A boot camp for editors is also scheduled Feb. 24-26.