JFK Assassination Records Collection Reference System
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Background
The Reference System
The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Reference System is an electronic index to many (but not all) documents from the JFK Assassination Records Collection in the National Archives. The JFK Act of 1992 required agencies that held assassination records to record information about these records on Record Identification Forms (RIFs) for input into a master database. A copy of the RIF is also attached to each document. All of the records described are open for viewing and reproduction, but ARE NOT AVAILABLE ON LINE.
Some documents in the database are still under review by certain agencies or have been
postponed from disclosure. This information is noted in the
RESTRICTIONS field or the CURRENT
STATUS field of the RIF. Updates to the system are made as agencies
complete their reviews and transfer newly opened records to NARA. The database was last updated on May 12, 2008, and currently contains 319,106 records.
Not all the material found in the Collection is indexed in the database. Material that was open for research on October 26, 1992, the day the JFK Act was signed, and was in the custody of the National Archives, did not have to be entered into the database. Most notably, most of the materials gathered by the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (commonly called the Warren Commission) have not been separately indexed. Additionally, documents received from private donors outside of the Federal government are not described in the database. Finding Aids describe records not in the JFK Database.
Notice
Users should be aware, this database is a compilation of entries input by the originating agencies. Although the National Archives and Records Administration provided guidelines for data entry, the master database is inconsistent in the terms used to describe records. Please keep this in mind when planning your database searches.
Contact Information
Questions concerning information in the database should be made to the Special Access and FOIA Staff at the National Archives and Records Administration.
Written inquiries:Special Access and FOIA Staff, Room 6350Telephone: (301) 837-3190
National Archives at College Park
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
E-mail: specialaccess_foia@nara.gov
Please note: Inquiries received by e-mail will be answered by postal mail and
not by e-mail. All e-mail inquiries should include a return address. These inquiries must be
handled in this manner due to the backlog of JFK inquiries.
