Wayne State's School of Library and Information Science offers a variety of internships and volunteer opportunities for interested students, and I must count the Alternative Spring Break as one of most rewarding of all offered. SLIS students may apply for one week internships during spring break at National Archives branches across the country. Each NARA site provides a unique program. One in particular caught my eye: the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. I have spent the past three years pursuing a Masters of Arts in history with a certificate in archival administration. My alternative spring break at the Bush Library became a capstone tying together what I have learned about history and archives.

The internship at the Bush Library centered on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Located in College Station, Texas, the library contains the papers of President George H.W. Bush, from his days as a businessman to his years in the White House. Fellow student Steven Wejroch and I met over dinner with the library's director, Dr. Robert Holzweiss, upon arrival in College Station. Dr. Holzweiss gave us a crash tutorial on FOIA that frankly made our heads spin. FOIA contains numerous provisions and stipulations, as well as avenues for litigation, that initially appear complex. Dr. Holzweiss and his staff did a wonderful job explaining the law's contours, however, and I left with a greater understanding of the act. President Johnson signed FOIA into law, allowing public access to potentially all documents of the federal government's executive branch. The president's and vice president's papers did not originally fall within the law's scope. This changed when President Carter signed the Presidential Records Act in 1978, which extended FOIA to the office of the president and vice-president. Beginning with the Reagan administration, presidential papers are now maintained by NARA and subject to FOIA requests.

A successful FOIA request often entails a lengthy process. Archivists at the library said requestors should expect to wait between one and five years for a request's completion. Archivists are required to respond to a request within twenty business days, but this does not mean material must be released within this timeframe. Requested material must first be reviewed by the staff and then sent to all relevant agencies that produced the material for clearance before release to the public. Presidential papers must also be cleared by both the former president's and current president's legal counsel. The Bush Library's archivists provide a great service guiding researchers through the FOIA process and developing efficient ways to search for and deliver material. Responding to a FOIA request involves a fascinating operation. When a researcher requests material on the Gulf War for example, all pertinent documents must be pulled from their original and often unprocessed locations. An artificial collection eventually forms, leaving a lengthy paper trail until all documents can be processed and returned to their original order.

After tours throughout the library and discussion with archivists, the staff entrusted Steven and I with reviewing documents from senators' files. I reviewed the files of senators McConnell, Moynihan, and Danforth, and even redacted sensitive information and removed papers with Bush's signature. I found this activity captivating and felt fortunate to be able to handle historical material and engage with FOIA processes so closely. The staff at the Bush Library supplied valuable lessons on archival principals, governmental procedures, and meeting the needs of researchers. This experience challenged many notions I had as well as supplemented what I have learned at Wayne State. I recommend this internship to any student desiring an engaging and informative spring break.