It’s common wisdom in the library and information science community that if you have something and you can’t find it, you don’t have it. This principle is as true for agencies’ records as it is in university libraries, and it directly affects the efficiency and effectiveness of agency FOIA programs. We’ve written before about President … Continue reading Records Management Directive Shifts Into Gear
While many (correctly) associate OGIS with mediation services to resolve FOIA disputes, those services are not the full extent of our mandate. Congress created OGIS to also review agencies’ FOIA policies, procedures and compliance. Sounds great, but how does OGIS learn what agencies are doing, and what do we do with that information? Obviously, our … Continue reading A Peek Inside the Sausage Factory
OGIS will offer an all-day Dispute Resolution Skills for FOIA Professionals training program on Monday December 3, 2012, at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. While we’ve offered this training program -- which equips FOIA professionals with practical communications and dispute resolution skills -- for nearly three years, this session will be a little … Continue reading Small Agencies, Big Issues: Upcoming Training Opportunity for FOIA Professionals
Experienced FOIA requesters can attest that FOIA requests follow a well-established process: a requester submits a request; the agency responds to that request; if the requester is dissatisfied with the response, he/she submits an administrative appeal; the agency responds to the appeal. Before OGIS opened in 2009, a requester who remained dissatisfied after the agency … Continue reading Timing is Everything: When Does OGIS Get Involved?
Conflict Resolution Week is October 15-19, 2012. To help celebrate, the federal Interagency Alternative Dispute Resolution Working Group is sponsoring a number of events. OGIS is pleased to be part of that celebration by offering the upcoming brown bag meeting/teleconference, "Dispute Resolution’s Impact on the FOIA Framework." If you are interested in how OGIS is using … Continue reading Make a Lunch Date with FOIA and Alternative Dispute Resolution
Note: This year’s International Right to Know Day is September 28, 2012. OGIS Director Miriam Nisbet marks the day with the following post about a recent meeting with right-to-know advocates from around the globe. Last month, I had the opportunity to participate in several events Down Under, where the talk was all about access to … Continue reading Talking FOIA in a Land Down Under
Interested in making a FOIA request for government records, but don’t know where to start? If so, we’ve got the resource for you! The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform just released a report titled The Citizen’s Guide to Using the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 to Request … Continue reading New to FOIA? Get the Citizen’s Guide
We at OGIS talk a lot about the importance of teamwork. Though we mostly think about teamwork improving everyday agency processes (such as FOIA) so that they run more smoothly, we recently heard about a cross-agency team recognizing a small opportunity and turning it into a big reward. Between 1946 and 1995, the Immigration and … Continue reading Teamwork Brings the Past to Life
It’s back-to-school time—you can practically hear the rumbling of school buses and smell the new No. 2 pencils. As students across the country turn their focus from the swimming pool and summer camp toward reading, writing and ‘rithmetic, what better time for us to revisit some FOIA requester basics? FOIA requesters frequently contact OGIS for … Continue reading Back to (FOIA) School: Requester Categories vs. Fee Waivers
When OGIS Director Miriam Nisbet opened the office in September 2009, three requests for OGIS assistance awaited her attention, yet she had no process in place for dealing with cases or any staff members to work on them. Since its inception, one of the great challenges OGIS has faced is figuring out how to do … Continue reading Thinking about process
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