Alabama Library Challenges (Ozark City Schools )
Submitted | Jan. 20, 2014 |
Est. Completion | None |
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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: Young, Wayne
To whom it may concern:
Most of the information you are seeking is available to the general public
on our district website www.ozarkcityschools.net, please refer to our
district policy manual. We use more than one layer of internet filtering
but the primary filter is provided through our ISP Alabama Super Computer
Authority and is CIPA compliant. We ask that any further requests for
information be made through the Alabama State Department of Education.
Wayne Young
Technology Director
Ozark City Schools
From: Chris Peterson
Mr. Young,
Thank you for your response and for directing to the policy manual posted online.
For the remainder of the request, could you please direct us or pass this request along to the appropriate person to handle public records requests for Ozark City Schools? The state Department of Education does not handle requests for individual districts, typically, but there may be another designated person within the district who may be tasked with responding to this kind of matter.
Thank you for your help, and have a great weekend!
From: Lenhart, Michael
You have received our response. You should read your email. Almost all of
the information you seek is available on our web site. You can extract
what you need there. If you have need of information not on our web site,
please contact the Alabama State Department of Education General Counsel.
Information that the general counsel asks us to provide will be released
to you under his guidance. If you have further questions I can be
contacted at 334-774-5197.
Michael Lenhart
Superintendent
Ozark City Schools
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