Alabama Library Challenges (Harrison Regional Library System)
| Submitted | Jan. 20, 2014 |
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Communications
From: Chris Peterson
To Whom It May Concern:
We are a team of academic researchers studying information access and availability in public schools and libraries. We are contacting you as part of a national effort to help us better understand the scope and substance of the various challenges which arise in the course of administering a public library system or public school system.
Under Alabama's Public Records Law, we are requesting copies of the following public records:
-any complaints, requests, and/or challenges for removal, reclassification, and/or reconsideration of publications including books, magazines, movies, music, and/or other media, along with any associated records, petitions, and/or correspondence since January 1, 2003
-any current collection or curriculum development policy or policies governing your institution(s)
-any records related to Internet filtering, including but not limited to:
-any current acceptable use policies, web publishing policies, or equivalents
-any current contracts with Internet filtering services and/or providers
-any current categories of content which your provider offers to block, along with which categories your library or libraries currently block
-any modifications to the standard configuration of your filter, including lists of sites, services, URLs, keywords, or other identifiers which have been specifically configured as forbidden or allowed (i.e. "blacklists/whitelists")
We will use these records in our research. Please note that we are not asking for registration, circulation, or other private records protected by state law, and you should feel free to redact personally identifiable information from the records you send us, at your discretion.
You may respond to this request by sending electronic documents (e.g. emails, screen captures, spreadsheets, etc) or high-quality scanned PDFs to this inbox. If you cannot respond by email, please fax copies to 206-984-9551, with “MIA” written clearly at the top of the first page. If you do not have any documents responsive to our request, or if you have questions about how to respond, then you may email us at this inbox. In order to assist you in responding to our request, we have also posted guidelines and examples at http://mappinginfoaccess.org.
We understand that there may be fees associated with responding to our request. We ask that you waive any such fees in light of our project’s character, which is non-commercial, academic, open, and firmly in the public interest. If you are unable to waive fees, and if they are in excess of $20, please contact us with an estimate of fees before responding.
Thank you in advance for helping us better understand the important work that you do. If you have any questions about our request or our project, please email us at: team [at] mappinginfoaccess [dot] org.
Sincerely,
Emily Knox
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Library & Information Science
University of Illinois
Shannon M. Oltmann
Assistant Professor
School of Library & Information Science
University of Kentucky
Chris Peterson
Researcher
Center for Civic Media, Media Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 20, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: Barbara Roberts
Dear Mr. Peterson,
Thank you for your inquiry. The Harrison Regional Library System is a cooperative system made up of eleven independent public libraries with the Harrison Regional Library serving as the headquarters library for the system. I was waiting until our regularly scheduled monthly directors' meeting to inquire if any of our member libraries had dealt with reconsideration of materials at their respective libraries. What I learned is that none of the libraries in our system has dealt with a complaint from a patron resulting in removal of materials from their collections. From time to time there were a few verbal complaints from patrons that never rose to a formal complaint as you describe. I hope this answers your question. The libraries in our system are: Albert L. Scott Library, Calera Public Library, Chelsea Public Library, Columbiana Public Library, Jane B. Holmes Public Library, North Shelby Library, Parnell Memorial Library,
Pelham Public Library, Lalouise McGraw Library, and Vernice Stoudemire Library.
Best regards,
Barbara Roberts
From: Chris Peterson
Hello,
Thank you for your response with regard to complaints and challenges. Please indicate whether you are continuing to process the remainder of the request for the following materials:
-any current collection or curriculum development policy or policies governing your institution(s)
-any records related to Internet filtering, including but not limited to:
-any current acceptable use policies, web publishing policies, or equivalents
-any current contracts with Internet filtering services and/or providers
-any current categories of content which your provider offers to block, along with which categories your library or libraries currently block
-any modifications to the standard configuration of your filter, including lists of sites, services, URLs, keywords, or other identifiers which have been specifically configured as forbidden or allowed (i.e. "blacklists/whitelists")
Thank you!
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 20, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: Barbara Roberts
Acceptable use policy for Harrison Regional Library System. Collection Development Policy is very old and is currently under review for revision process. I don't have any other information from the list you had sent.
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:
This communication, together with any attachments hereto or links contained herein, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is confidential or legally protected. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, disclosure, copying, dissemination, distribution, taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this information or use of this communication is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail message or telephone and delete the original and all copies of the communication, along with any attachments hereto or links herein, from your system.
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From: Barbara Roberts
Hi,
My name is Barbara Roberts and I am the Director of the Harrison Regional Library System. The libraries in our system have been getting e-mails from your organization with a request for information. Our libraries decided at our March meeting that I should respond for all the libraries in the system.
I sent an e-mail stating that no library in the system had removed any materials due to a complaint for reconsideration during the time frame of 2003-present. I received a second e-mail requesting policies and I responded with a copy of the system's acceptable use policy and stated that the system's collection development policy was under review and revision. Please allow this response to act as a response for all the libraries in the Harrison Regional Library System. The members are: Albert L. Scott Library, Calera Public Library, Chelsea Public Library, Columbiana Public Library, Helena Public Library, Lallouise McGraw Public Library, North Shelby Library, Parnell Memorial Library, Pelham Public Library, Vernice Stoudenmire Public Library, and the Harrison Regional Library.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Best regards,
Barbara Roberts, Director
Harrison Regional Library System
From: Barbara Roberts
From: MuckRock
Ms. Roberts,
Apologies for the oversight -- we will update our databases and mark as completed all Harrison Regional Library cooperative members immediately.
Thank you so much for your help!
From: Barbara Roberts
Thanks, Chris.
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