Program C-5Reporting for Duty: Military

Information and its Application to Legal Research

Betsy JayasuriyaPentagon Library

It is the policy of the Department of Defense to make available timely and accurate information

so that the public, Congress and the news media may assess and understand the facts about national security and defense strategy.

--Department of Defense Principles of Information, Assistant Secretary of

Defense for Public affairs(http://www.defenselink.mil/admin/prininfo.html)

Look it up!

DoD Organizational Chart

The big information picture

• Who would produce it– Who would care about the topic ?– Who would have the money?– What organization might report on it?

• Who would want it– DoD– Military community– Congress, public, other?

• Outside agencies or bodies count too

Types of Information

• Generated within DoD or by U.S. government to determine DoD actions and policy

• Generated by DoD to inform government and public– Persistent: GPO publications– Daily business: e.g. cleared by Public Affairs

• Records (subject to FOIA requests)• Personal• Businesss

• Open source

Service-specific official publications

Defenselink: Home page of DoD

Partners and Monitors

• FAS Military Analysis Network• Center for Defense Information• National Academies Press• Rand

The Military Web

Where to

MERLN/NDU Catalog

Defense Libraries

Thank you!