Interested in how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) searches its electronic records in response to a FOIA request? Join us on Thursday, May 6 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. EDT for a virtual program, Finding a Needle in a Haystack: Enterprise-wide FOIA Searches at CDC.
As we have previously noted, the COVID-19 pandemic — and the federal government’s response to the outbreak — has resulted in a steep increase in FOIA requests submitted to those agencies on the front lines of the response.
In Fiscal Year 2020, the CDC received 2,481 FOIA requests, a 95-percent increase from the previous fiscal year.
Last year, OGIS partnered with CDC to offer a FOIA Requests for CDC COVID-19 Records webinar. Topics in the May 6 webinar will include: the boundaries of enterprise search, tools to retrieve documents, real examples and demonstrations of successful searches, and tips for scoping requests to ensure better search results. This session is designed for those requesters who seek email records and have been informed that their request’s scope is too broad. Other agency FOIA offices that are challenged by enterprise search may also find this discussion helpful.
Members of the public are welcome to watch the livestream of this event on the National Archives’ YouTube channel or attend the meeting virtually through Webex. Those attending the meeting via Webex must register online before 11:59 p.m. EDT on Tuesday May 4. After you register, OGIS will send instructions to all registrants for accessing the meeting via Webex.We want to hear your questions for CDC FOIA — please submit questions in advance of the webinar by email to ogisopenmeeting@nara.gov with “CDC FOIA” in the subject line. While the program will include a question and answer period, please note that the CDC and OGIS will not discuss issues related to particular FOIA requests or outside the realm of FOIA.
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