Supervised during the Ford administration by Mary E. Hooper, Editorial Clerk, the unit worked with the Office of the Press Secretary, receiving draft press releases, reproducing, and distributing them. They compiled a keyword index to presidential speeches, announcements, interviews, statements, press conferences, and messages whose texts were issued as press releases. White House volunteers created this detailed card index to press releases of Ford's speeches, announcements, interviews, statements, press conferences, and messages. Over 200,000 entries give keyword or phrase, the context phrase, and full text citation. The entries cover subjects from Mass Assured Destruction to broomcorn imports, and places from China to Latvia.
Researchers can easily acquire photocopies of entries by mail or telephone inquiry.
The Press Release Unit also maintained a collection of multiple copies of government publications such as annual and special reports to the President by various agencies, presumably for distribution to the press. Included in the Nessen files are drafts of some of the press releases, the text of all Presidential news conferences, and all of Nessen's daily press briefings. The text of President Ford's speeches, statements and press conferences are also available in the Ford volumes of the publication Public Papers of the Presidents. Boxes 24-255 A card file which indexes the texts of Presidential statements, announcements, speeches, interviews and messages on a keyword basis. The file consists of approximately 200,000 cards.