Finding out who to talk to in a congressional office isn’t always easy. But today we’re pleased to announce that we’ve updated our free House of Representatives Staff Directory to include information for the 1st quarter of 2011. You can search by staff name, title, state, or party — or browse by member, committee office, or other office — and learn more about who is helping make Congress work. You can also download your search results into a spreadsheet file.

The information is drawn from the House Statement of Disbursements and other publications by the House Clerk’s office. The directory helps us illustrate the point that publishing public information online allows for creative mixing of that data to serve an important public need. In this case, knowing who’s at the other end of the phone line.

By the end of the year, the Senate will be publishing its Statement of Disbursements online, and we hope to build a Senate staff directory using that information as well. We’ll keep working on the Directory, so keep checking back for more info.