Declassified refers to government documents that were formerly classified as secret and are now ceased to be restricted. Students, faculty and staff have access to several resources through the Graduate Center Library in which to find declassified U.S. government documents.
Declassified Documents Reference System: Document Number: CK3100380878
Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS) provides access to documents from a variety of U.S. government agencies such as the CIA, FBI, White House, the National Security Council, Defense Department and several others. The types of documents that can be found include correspondence, memorandum, meeting minutes, and confidential file materials.
There are two versions of DDRS:
- The first is a microfiche set of declassified documents. The microfiche set ranges from 1975 to 1985 and is searchable through a print index.
- The second is an online database. Full-text searches can be performed by document type, issue date, source institution, classification level, date declassified, sanitization, completeness, number of pages, and document number. The online collection ranges from post-World War II through the 1970s.
Why would someone need the old microfiche when we have access to the full-text online? The online version is a subset that ends in the 70’s. While much easier to search, it is missing upward of 10,000 documents.
Declassified Documents Reference System: microfiche Defense Dept. 1980, 36D-39B
Digital National Security Archive: Statement on CIA Casualties in Afghanistan, CIA Covert Operations, 1977-2010 collection, item number CO02320
Digital National Security Archive is a collection of over 103,000 declassified government documents. Currently, there are 42 collections that cover critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post-World War II through the 21st century.
Declassified documents can also be found on a number of federal agencies web sites. In addition, below are several resources that are freely accessible on the web:
Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room
Gulflink (Persian Gulf War documents)
PlusD (WikiLeaks Public Library of US Diplomacy)
Presidential Recordings Program (University of Virginia, Miller Center of Public Affairs)
State Department Electronic Reading Room
Vietnam War Declassification Project (Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library)
Melissa Longhi is the Serials and Reserve Acquisitions Manager at the CUNY Graduate Center Library. 
Thanks. I looked at the print index in the GC Library. As you note, it goes up to the mid-1980s. However, it appears that microfiche is still being issued for the DDRS (although the GC has the electronic version rather than the continuing microfiche). And, there is a print index of the microfiche that is still being issued by another publisher, Research Publications, starting where the Retrospective Collection left off. The print index (and presumably the more recent microfiche) is available down the street at the Science and Business Library (NYPL, SIBL). The Declassified documents catalog *R-SIBL Z1223.Z9D4 I haven’t compared the two print indexes and the electronic version; so I don’t know what benefits there might be to using any particular set of them. But, as you note, to the extent there are documents that appear (or are indexed) in one set but not the other, it might be useful to look at multiple indexes.
Yes, the Graduate Center Library has a copy of the print index. The index is located in the Microform Reference section (ask at the Reference Desk if you have difficultly locating it). The Declassified documents, retrospective collection: Microform Reference – Z1223 .Z7 .D36
You say that the DDRS microfiche is searchable through a print index. Does the GC have a copy of the print index? If so, what is its location?