By the time you read this, the 2001 Holiday Season will be a fading memory. Still, I'm passing on a must-have gift suggestion for every student media newsroom in the country.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press announced in late December that it had published a fourth Edition of Tapping Officials' Secrets.

If I wasn't filled with holiday joy already, I am now - and you should be, too. Tapping is the most comprehensive guide to state open meetings and records laws available. Questions that used to require a trip to the law library and a couple hours of research now take just minutes. Indeed, with the exception of my worn and tattered Law of the Student Press book, it is the single media law resource I use most often.

The guide, produced with the assistance of lawyers across the country who are experts in the field, is created specifically for busy journalists who don't usually need or want a full legal treatise, but a quick answer of "yes" or "no." For example:

• Can I get a copy of a student's 911 call she made to police?
• Can I obtain records showing how much my university's private foundation spent to renovate its offices last year?
• Can I find out how much our football coach makes - and how does that compare to his counterpart at our rival school?

Using Tapping, I found the following in less than 15 minutes:

(1) 911 tapes appear to publicly available in most cases - either explicitly or presumptively - in every state but Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wyoming.

(2) While most states haven't specifically considered the question, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana (limited), Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas have either statutes or cases on the books requiring that public university foundation records be open for public inspection. Only West Virginia - following a much criticized opinion by its Supreme Court - has explicitly ruled a public university foundation's records to be off limits.

(3) Salary information for public employees, which includes public university employees and faculty, is available - either explicitly or presumptively (again, because the issue has never been directly addressed) - in all states. Although Virginia only requires disclosure for employees earning over $10,000 and Pennsylvania - a state whose freedom of information laws are probably the worst in country - requires salary amounts to be disclosed but allows the names of the employees earning such salaries to be withheld.

In addition, the guide provides practical advice on how to gain access to a meeting of public officials, how to file a freedom of information request for records, how long you should wait for a response and what to do if your request is denied.

Tapping Officials' Secrets is available as a 1,400-page printed compendium of all states or in individual state booklets. It also is available as a CD-ROM containing a searchable version in Adobe Acrobat format (PDF files) and an HTML version (for Web browsers). A free searchable version of the guide also may be found at the Reporters Committee website (http://www.rcfp.org).

While the online version is great, the print publications include copies of each state's open record and open meeting statutes, which I've found can be essential when trying to argue your case to stubborn school administrators. An individual state booklet - which is really the only thing most student newsrooms should need - is just $10.

For access to the free online guide and for ordering information, see: http://www.reporterscommittee.org/tapping2001

Have a joyous - and open - 2002!

Visit the Student Press Law Center online at http://www.splc.org.