(a) General. Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2), the Department maintains a public reading room containing agency records that the FOIA requires to be made regularly available for public inspection and copying. Published records of the Department, whether or not available for purchase, are made available for examination. The Department's public reading room is located at the National Library of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Plaza Level (Level B), Washington, DC 20202-0008. The hours of operation are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday (except Federal holidays).

(b) Reading room records. Agency records maintained in the public reading room include final opinions and orders in adjudications, statements of policy and interpretations adopted by the Department and not published in the Federal Register, administrative staff manuals and instructions affecting the public, and copies of all agency records regardless of form or format released to the public pursuant to a FOIA request that the Department determines are likely to be the subject of future FOIA requests.

(c) Electronic access. The Department makes reading room records created on or after November 1, 1996, available through its electronic reading room, located on the Department's FOIA Web site at http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/foia/readingroom.html.