What You Will Find in FOIA Reading Rooms

           Under subsection (a)(2) of the FOIA, agencies must make four distinct categories of records affirmatively available for “public inspection and copying.”  These so-called “reading room” records consist of (1) “final opinions [and] ... orders” rendered in the adjudication of administrative cases; (2) specific agency policy statements; (3) certain administrative staff manuals; and (4) as of March 31, 1997, records disclosed in response to a FOIA request that “the agency determines have become or are likely to become the subject of subsequent requests for substantially the same records.”