Public Library Circulation, Anonymized Patron Access Records, and Budget Information

Bree Norlander filed this request with the Darlington County Library System of Darlington County, SC.
Status
Completed

Communications

From: Bree Norlander


To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the South Carolina Public Records Law, I hereby request the following records:

1. Total circulation of library materials (broken down by material type) for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. Please provide these as aggregated monthly totals for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. If possible please include the following details:

-Total physical item circulation (delineated by first time check-outs versus renewals)
-Total number of circulations of electronic materials
-Total circulation
-Electronic Content Use
-Total Collection Use

2. Lost library items aggregated monthly for 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

3. Patron circulation records including material due dates and material return dates for 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. If possible, please provide these as hashed (de-identified but with unique key per patron).

4. Annual itemized library budget 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 including any donations made to the library. Please provide a record of donations collected aggregated monthly for these years. Please also provide a description of how donations are solicited.

5. The total revenue of fines and total revenue of fees collected 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

6. The current library policy on fines and fees and the date this policy took effect as well as dates of changes to the policy between 2015 and today.

7. The definition (if any) your library uses for "active borrower".

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This request is part of a research project by the Information School at the University of Washington to better understand how removal of library fines affects library circulation, patron visits, and library budgets. We are committed to open access and plan to make our findings broadly available to the public. If fees cannot be waived please inform us in advance.

We ask that, if possible, you please respond via email with data files in machine-readable format (examples include .csv, .txt., .xls/x) or if applicable text documents or clear, high-quality scanned PDFs. If you cannot reply electronically, please mail us the best quality copies you reasonably can. Your efforts help us ensure broad accessibility and equity.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 15 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Bree Norlander

From: Bree Norlander

Hello,

Due to the toll that COVID-19 is taking on all aspects of work and life, we are withdrawing this request for public records. We do not want to add an additional burden onto anyone's workload. We wish you and your library the best, and hope at some point in the future to request data (through email) from you regarding our research. For now please consider the request closed.

Take care,
Dr. Nicholas Weber, nmweber@uw.edu
Bree Norlander, norlab@uw.edu
University of Washington Information School

From: Darlington County Library System

Your request is quite detailed and specific regarding the information you
need for your research. We do not compile statistics in the way you
requested and it would be quite time consuming to provide the specific
information you requested.

You will find attached spreadsheets and other documents which contain
information that may be relevant to your request.

Jimmie

Jimmie Epling

Director

Darlington County Library System

204 North Main Street

Darlington, SC 29532

O: 843.398.4940 / 843.944.8353

C: 606.923.1576

<mailto:jimmie.epling@darlington-lib.org> jimmie.epling@darlington-lib.org

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