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

Bree Norlander filed this request with the Greenwood Public Library of Greenwood, IN.

It is a clone of this request.

Due March 30, 2020
Est. Completion None
Status
Awaiting Response

Communications

From: Bree Norlander


To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Indiana Access to Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1. Total circulation of library materials (broken down by material type) for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. Please provide these as aggregated monthly totals for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. 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 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

3. Patron circulation records including material due dates and material return dates for 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. If possible, please provide these as hashed (de-identified but with unique key per patron).

4. Annual itemized library budget 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 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 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

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 2016 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 7 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Bree Norlander

From:

We do not have all of the information requested.

Questions 1 and 2 we can get the information to you electronically
Question 3 our ILS cannot retrieve this data.
Question 4: When you say donations, do you mean just financial? Books? Other physical materials donated? We cannot provide a monthly record for this but could do annual.
Question 5: Our room fees, lost book fees, and fines are all tracked together and cannot be separated.
Question 6: We can get you this information electronically
Question 7: We can get you this information electronically

Please let us know if we should submit a partial response.

Cheryl Dobbs
Executive Director | Greenwood Public Library
310 S. Meridian Street | Greenwood, IN 46143
317-883-4229 | Cell 317-908-8308
greenwoodlibrary.us

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"All of the things that are wrong with the world seem conquered by a library's simple unspoken promise: Here I am, please tell me your story; here is my story, please listen." Susan Orlean, The Library Book

From: Bree Norlander

Hi Cheryl,

Thank you so much for your follow up. We will happily accept a partial response with the items you are able to provide. Specifically, we would like to receive data for:

Q1 and Q2
Q4 Financial donations aggregated at the annual level
Q5 If you are able to provide aggregated data that includes room fees, lost book fees, and fines we will accept that data.
Q6 and Q7

Again, thank you - we really appreciate your response and we look forward to hearing back from you.

Bree Norlander
Research Analyst & Coordinator
University of Washington Information School
norlab@uw.edu

From: Greenwood Public Library

We will need an extension on this. We are closed for the forseeable future. When the virus slows down we will be ready to respond to all requests.

Cheryl Dobbs
Executive Director | Greenwood Public Library
310 S. Meridian Street | Greenwood, IN 46143
317-883-4229 | Cell 317-908-8308
greenwoodlibrary.us

[cid:image001.jpg@01D4EE19.31EFF6F0]

"All of the things that are wrong with the world seem conquered by a library's simple unspoken promise: Here I am, please tell me your story; here is my story, please listen." Susan Orlean, The Library Book

From: Bree Norlander

Hi Cheryl,

We absolutely understand the delay. We will be happy to receive this information when you are back to normal operations. In the meantime, please take care!

Sincerely,
Bree Norlander
Research Analyst & Coordinator
University of Washington Information School
norlab@uw.edu

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

From: Greenwood Public Library

Are you reopening this request? We are still swamped in the process of slowly reopening during COVID 19.

The last communication said to consider this request closed.
Sent from my iPhone

From: Bree Norlander

No we are not re-opening the request. There appears to have been some miscommunication with the MuckRock platform. I'm sorry for the confusion, we will try to get it sorted so that you don't receive anymore requests from MuckRock.

Thank you,
Bree

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