Requesting Records Across Agencies
With 100 departments and agencies, the Executive Branch can feel downright massive sometimes. Although each of the 100 has a separate and distinct mission, and no doubt creates very different kinds of records, there is also some overlap in the way agencies operate and with the records they keep. Since its start, OGIS has been [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on February 6, 2013, under About FOIA, About OGIS, Best practices.
Tags: Team Approach
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Civil War-era Pension Records: An OGIS Case Study
When University of California–Los Angeles economics professor Dora Costa started looking at aging processes and extreme longevity, she knew military files of Civil War veterans would be crucial to her research. Costa planned to compare medical records and life histories of Civil War veterans with present-day veterans’ records for soldiers who lived to be at [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on November 19, 2012, under About OGIS, Best practices, OGIS Case Study.
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Reconciling FOIA and the Privacy Act
When you request records about yourself from the Federal government, agencies apply both the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act of 1974 (Privacy Act) to grant the most access possible. FOIA and the Privacy Act have different purposes. FOIA provides the public with a right of access to government records while the [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on October 26, 2012, under About FOIA, Privacy, Requester Roundtable.
Comments: 9
Upcoming Requester Roundtable Discussion: The Privacy Act and FOIA
Both the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act contain provisions that grant a right of access to Federal records. Hear from government experts in both fields about The Intersection of the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act at the next FOIA Requester Roundtable on October 24, 2012. OGIS, along with the [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on October 12, 2012, under About FOIA, About OGIS, Requester Roundtable.
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Checking it Twice: Appeals Provide Necessary Second Look
The FOIA process, as with much in life, provides an opportunity to give our actions a second look. After all, most of us don’t file a major report without asking someone to proofread for errors, right? Or walk out the door without one last check in the mirror? FOIA directs that requesters can appeal “any [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on September 13, 2012, under About FOIA, About OGIS, Best practices.
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Government-wide Records Directive Addresses Electronic Records
By the end of the decade, Federal agencies must digitize management of electronic records—including the millions of emails sent and received each year—according to a new records directive introduced last week. With a focus on a digital transition, the Managing Government Records Directive issued jointly by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on August 28, 2012, under Open Government, Records Management.
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More on Declassification
Documents declassified by the government’s highest classification authority will soon be posted online in a new government declassification portal, a Federal declassification expert said at a July 25, 2012 FOIA Requester Roundtable. William C. Carpenter of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) at the National Archives provided tips on a variety of declassification issues and [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on August 3, 2012, under About FOIA, OGIS events, Open Government.
Comments: 2
The Skinny on Third Parties
Records requests pertaining to third-party individuals are the next order of business for the FOIA Requester Roundtable series co-hosted by OGIS and the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy. The roundtable will be from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday January 24 at the National Archives, 7th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington DC, near [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on January 13, 2012, under OGIS events.
Comments: 2
Demystifying Declassification
When a requester wants access to records that are classified, he or she can choose to ask an agency to undergo Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) of those documents rather than filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. MDR requests allow the agency to give records a fresh look to see whether they might be [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on November 10, 2011, under About FOIA.
Comments: 4
Gather ’Round
Interested in contractor and other business-related records in the FOIA context? OGIS and the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy are gearing up to host the next FOIA Requester Roundtable from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011. The roundtable will be at OIP, 1425 New York Ave. NW, Suite 11050, Washington DC, [...]
Posted by Corinna Zarek on October 12, 2011, under OGIS events.
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