UCF Research Guides: Access & Freedom of Information: Federal

Related Resources

Key Federal Resources

FOIA.gov
Data: You can explore the FOIA data that makes up an agency’s annual FOIA report. Search for data from a single agency or compare data from multiple agencies.
Reports:
- Annual FOIA Reports - popular statistics and facts from each agency's most recent Annual FOIA Report that is available on FOIA.gov,
- Quarterly Data Reporting - key statistics on the administration of the FOIA at each agency, and updated as each quarter of the current fiscal year ends.
Find:
- How to make a FOIA request
- Where to make a FOIA request

FOIA - Freedom of Information Act (U.S. Dept of Justice, Office of Information Policy)

Federal FOI Resources (National Freedom of Information Coalition)

Federal FOIA Websites (UC San Diego)
provides links to over 150 federal agency FOIA websites

Other Federal Resources

National Personnel Records Center (National Archives) - "a central repository of personnel-related records, both military and civil service."

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Books (George Washington University) - "provide online access to critical declassified records on issues including U.S. national security, foreign policy, diplomatic and military history, intelligence policy, and more. Updated frequently, the Electronic Briefing Books represent just a small sample of the documents in our published and unpublished collections."

OMB Watch - "a nonprofit government watchdog organization located in Washington, DC...to promote open government, accountability and citizen participation."

FedSpending.org - a free, searchable database of federal government spending on contracts and grants with annual data beginning in fiscal year 2000. See also the federal government website USASpending.gov.

The Right-to-Know Network "provides free access to numerous environmental databases."

OpenTheGovernment.org - "a coalition of journalists, consumer and good government groups, environmentalists, library groups, labor, and others united to make the federal government a more open place in order to make us safer, strengthen public trust in government, and support our democratic principles."

Press Room - reports, testimony, letters, video, webcasts, etc.
Right-to-Know Databases - census, Congress, contracts & grants, energy, environment, labor, transportation, other

Project on Government Secrecy (Federation of American Scientists) "Through research, advocacy, and public education, the FAS Project on Government Secrecy works to challenge excessive government secrecy and to promote public oversight."

Transactional Record Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) "highly detailed but easy-to-access information on selected federal enforcement agencies, special topical reports, and 'bulletins' about federal enforcement, staffing and expenditures."

Let the People Know the Facts: Can Government Information Removed from the Internet Be Reclaimed?
By Susan Nevelow Mart
This article (without the appendices) was first published in 98 Law Library Journal 1 (2006).
Less Access to Less Information By and About the U.S. Government (1981+)
"From 1981 until 1998, Anne Heanue and the fine folks at the Washington Office of the American Library Association (ALA) published an amazing series called Less Access to Less Information by and about the U.S. Government, a chronology of efforts to restrict and privatize government information.... In our own very modest tribute to Anne Heanue’s monumental work, we list, below, our own posts of a similar nature documenting efforts to restrict, alter, remove, and privatize government information."