Public notices from hundreds of newspapers across Illinois — including all Suburban Life Publication products — are now at the public’s fingertips, thanks to a free online database launched Friday by the Illinois Press Association.

Government entities are required by law to publish announcements of legal proceedings and public notices in local newspapers. The IPA’s new Web site, PublicNoticeIllinois.com, will load every published notice into its system and allow users to search for them by keyword, date or newspaper community.

Caroll Stacklin, a member of the IPA’s board of directors and publisher of Suburban Life Publications, said the service will take the value and visibility of public notices to the next level.

“It gives the public exposure to public notices they have not had access to across the state,” Stacklin said. “It’s one more step for local newspapers to provide relevant and useful information to our readers.”

More than 400 Illinois newspapers have or are in the process of joining the service, leaving about 100 newspapers the IPA is working with to join soon, said Denise Guttery, the IPA’s director of technology.

“Our goal is to get every newspaper across the state,” Guttery said.

In addition to free manual searches, the Web site offers a smart search feature, available by paid subscription, that generates e-mail alerts on a selected topic or name any time a public notice enters the system. 

IPA Communications and Marketing Director David Porter  said the public notice Web site allows newspapers to maintain their long-time role as the independent information source while maximizing convenience to the public.

“It just makes sense that if public notices are going to be online, that they are online in a way that is usable to people,” he said. “People should not have to go to multiple Web sites to find them.”