Needing information on how to pry information from reluctant agencies? There is a wealth of resources compiled and available on the World Wide Web.

Resource Lists

Resources on Freedom of Information Issues: http://town.hall.org/places/spj/foi-resources.html

Compiled by Syracuse University professor Barbara Croll Fought, the list points out Organizations and Resource Centers, Hotlines, Periodicals, Books and On-Line Resources. Although it is now a few years old, the references are all mostly still valid.

Parascope's FOIA Help Center Home Page: http://www.parascope.com/foia.html

OK, yes, Parascope's mission is to uncover alien conspiracies and paranormal occurrences, but they have compiled a nice list of links to other FOIA information sites.

State FOI Laws-Titles and Statutory Citations: http://www.missouri.edu/~foiwww/citelist.html

Need to recite the chapter and verse of your state's Public Records laws? This listing, by state, gives you the citations - have those recalcitrant officials read the rules.

Discussion Lists

FOI-L: Listserv discussion group on FOI http://www.reporters.net/nfoic/foi-1.html Find out how to join the listserv, sponsored by the National Freedom of Information Coalition and Barbara Fought.

Organizations

National Freedom of Information Coalition Home Page: http://www.reporters.net/nfoic/index.html

Links to information about the NFOIC.

Guides to Filing

Department of Justice FOIA Guide gopher://justice2.usdoj.gov:70/11/oip/foia2

This gopher site listings and links to the chapters of DOJ's FOIA guide. They are in PDF format, which requires availability of an Adobe Acrobat viewer (download for free from http://www.adobe.com/acrobat/readstep.html)

FOIA Tips and Tricks: http://www.parascope.com/tips.html

Although the source of this site, Parascope, focuses on paranormal phenomenon, they have a useful, reasonable listing of the seven steps you should take in filing a FOIA request:

Do your research first. Write your request clearly and be specific. Target your request. Establish and maintain contact with the agency. Stay administratively correct. Delays in processing requests while unfortunate are normal. Be reasonable.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE to using the Freedom of Information Act: http://www.aclu.org/library/foiafaq.html

A FAQ on FOI.

Poynter's List of the Top 38 Excuses Government Agencies Give for Not Being Able to Fulfill Your Data Request (And Suggestions on What You Should Say or Do) http://www.poynter.org/prof/poynter/excuse.html

Compiled by participants at Poynter's Computer-Assisted Reporting seminar, 1994.

Contacts

FOIA Administrative and Legal Contacts at Federal Agencies: http://www.soc.american.edu/~wc9923a/foia.html

Listing, by agency name, of the contacts for questions about FOIA request filing in that agency.

Nora Paul can be reached at (813) 821-9494, or send e-mail to npaul@poynter.org