TROVE OF STATE INFORMATION NOW ONLY A CLICK AWAY. The following info was printed in the Vancouver, Washington newspaper, "The Columbian" tonite 29 June l998 written by Tom VOGT Columbian Staff Writer: "An electronic doorway to state information has opened with an online link to Washington agencies. The "Find-It! Washington "web site is operated by the Washington State Library in Olympia. It helps people locate state information through the Internet, even if they don't know which department or agency they need. The site's Internet address is find-it.wa.gov. In the past few months different Washington residents have used the link to discover: If a person's 88 year old mother would be eligible for Medicaid benefits if he relocated her from New Jersey to Washington. How to register a new nonprofit organization. How a person could place his severely disabled son in foster care. "Find-It!" resulted from a statewide task force organized in 1994. The group of civic, business and government leaders recommended an improved method for citizens to get access to governmental information. "Find-It!" will be a work in progress for quite some time. Right now, 17 of the state's 65 agencies have posted significant information on the site. Each agency can establish its own priorities for posting information. There also are links to 21 Washington cities and nine counties. In some cases, the information is updated weekly. The "Find-It!" document index provides links to about 130,000 resources. "That can be a single Web page, or everything an agency has put up, said Gayle Palmer senior librarian with the Washington State Library. Our focus was on locating the most wanted material first." The Washington State Library does not deliver the document, Palmer added. "We will locate it, and then link people to the agency sites", she said. People unable to find the information they want can e-mail librarians at the Washington State Library for help. Not all information is accessible. Because of privacy and confidentiality issues, some documents are exempt from the state public-records law. The 17 state agencies and departments with the most information on "Find-It!" are: Senate; House of Representatives;Superintendent of Public Instruction; Lottery Commission, Washington State Library, Secretary of State; Arts Commission; Utilities and Transportation Commission; Parks and Recreation Commission; Tourism Development Division; and the departments of Ecology, Natural Resources, Corrections, Retirement Systems, Health, General Administration and Transportation." Hope this helps. Marjorie DAWSON THOMAS Battle Ground, Washington