Then, once the information has been gathered, you have a number of choices. You can see the documentation at a government reading room and determine what it is you want and have that documentation provided to you at about 20ยข a page, or you can arrange to have it sent to you electronically on a CD-ROM. Those are the two options you have.
One of the things we try to do is encourage departments to work with people to limit and zero in on what it is they really want, as opposed to what they may have asked. Individuals, not necessarily being well aware of the complexity of government filing systems, often ask for far more than they really want. We try to narrow it down that way.