FREQUENTLY REQUESTED RECORDS are available at this web site.

ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD OR PUBLIC FILES contain information that has already been deemed releasable because it is required to be released by law -- and is placed in a public or administrative file, such as records related to an Office of Surface mining rule making. Or, the records placed in a public file have already been reviewed for FOIA exemptions.

READING ROOMS are located in some Office of Surface Mining offices for you to visit, inspect the records and copy the portions you want. We are not required to have a public reading room in every office; however, we do have public records available for inspection and copying. The Office of Surface Mining is a decentralized agency and the records in each office generally pertain to the programmatic jurisdiction of that office.

ELECTRONIC READING ROOM (computer telecommunications) is a new term describing a type of records access. Information on the Office of Surface Mining web site can link you to other sources of publicly available information, which is in electronic format.

FAX ON DEMAND is another service OSM is providing for accessing certain information, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our Fax on Demand telephone number is: 202-219-1703.

FEDERAL REGISTER publishes certain information provided by the Office of Surface Mining (for example, administrative staff manuals affecting the public, agency organization tables, opinions, policy statements, handbooks, manuals, etc., that affect the public).

PRIVACY ACT FILES contain records retrievable by your name, social security number or other personal identifier. Consider submitting a Privacy Act request rather than an FOIA request for records concerning you that are filed this way.