The National Security Archive (not to be confused with the National Archives or the National Security Agency) is one of the leading private research agencies when it comes to identifying, declassifying, analyzing, and disseminating once-classified documents. It is able to do this in part because it's well-funded and staffed by experienced attorneys who get their way (sometimes) by suing the Pentagon, the CIA, or whichever agency controls the documents they want. In this case, one of their lawyers spotted a reference to the National Archives study, titled "Records Maintenance and Disposition in Headquarters Air Force Offices," dated January 2005, in the footnotes of a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. They requested a copy of the report through FOIA; they received a (slightly redacted) copy just this month. Knowing of my interest in the subject, and seeing the reference to the 2003 Slate column in the study's introduction, Bill Burr, one of the NSA's chief researchers, sent me a copy. To read the entire study, click here to download the PDF.