And I think the requester is going to be satisfied with the legibility of the final product. All of our FOIA requests for 1996 are being electronically filed. However, because the system is still new, we are holding onto our paper copies. Additionally, all records in Energy's public reading room are being electronically scanned into its system. In this case, though, the paper copies have not been kept, because the various offices and divisions are the actual repositories of original records and the reading room maintains only copies of records.
Users can now access the records electronically by using keyword searches.
I believe that with this kind of action, the requester is going to be very satisfied. At the present time, seven analysts at Energy's Headquarters are processing records using imaging technology. When they search for records, however, they rely on the traditional methods of manual searches and telephone inquiries. Eventually, Sessoms hopes to have all of Energy's program offices and divisions interconnected by this information system. When they reach that point, an analyst could scan a FOIA request into the system and then electronically send the request to a program office, where a program assistant would conduct an electronic search for records and electronically send them to the analyst for automated processing.