Government Attic

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If you aren’t familiar with Government Attic, it is a newly re-designed website that “provides electronic copies of hundreds of interesting Federal Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.” A visit to Government Attic presents a simple search engine and a list of the most recently added documents. It appears as if all the .PDF files on the site are full text searchable. Users can also browse the FOIA logs for the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and other agencies. A great feature of the website is that is clearly identifies when the site was last updated, as well as, the dates particular documents were added to the site.

Some recent additions include:

Database used for tracking extraterrestrial sample requests maintained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astromaterials Curation Office, 1987-2010

FBI File No. 58-HQ-1548, 1940’s FBI Leak Investigation Focusing on Lawrence E. Kerley, an editor with the New York Journal-American newspaper, and former FBI Special Agent

FOIA case logs for Department of Health &. Human Services (DHHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF), 2005-2010

If you are interested in the Freedom of Information Act, I highly recommend reading the FOIA Blog, written by Attorney Scott Hodes, who also reported on the new website design.