Alabama Library Challenges (Tuscaloosa City Schools )

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request, also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together, but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

The Tuscaloosa City School System will be closed for spring break during the week of March 24. We will return on March 31.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>> Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> 03/23/14 04:00 >>>

March 23, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January 20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request, also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together, but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News) requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

So sorry, but I'm not available Thursday or Friday, March 20 and 21. E-Rate deadlines are upon us and forms must be checked, tweaked, and submitted.

If you have a technical emergency, please contact John York, Stephen Appleby, Wade Gilbreath, or Chris Jenks.

Sorry for the inconvience!

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>> Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> 03/23/14 04:00 >>>

March 23, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January 20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request, also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together, but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News) requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

None of us has a lot of time to spend on this, but if you have any information about challenges to books or other materials you have had in your library, would you send me the information so I can compile it for these folks, please?

The only policy information I can find is
IB: Policy for Selection and Review of Library Materials
IB-RA: Checklist for Advisory Review Committee: Review of Library Materials – Fiction and Other Literary Forms
And possibly this:
IDDF-A: Section 504 for Eligible Students
Is that what everyone uses? If you have a different form, please let me know.

I'll handle the web filter questions since I can just do screen shots. With no library director to track material challenges, no one has any idea what has been challenged in the last few years - or ever.

This is the request (and all libraries in Alabama have received the same request):
https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Please take a look at the link and let me know if you have information to share.

Thanks, all!

Andie

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

Hi, Chris.

Somebody on our Technology Listserv said they heard from the state that we don't have to do this. Being a former librarian myself, and being enamored of information availability and access, I'm going to see what I can scrape up for you. How about I send the information I have? Time permitting, I'll create a nice presentation of the information. Meanwhile, you'll have SOMETHING.

I just copied you on the email I have sent to our librarians. We have no library directory. If we did, we would have an organized history of challenges. That's how we handled it at other school system I've worked with, but Tuscaloosa City Schools (in my opinion) do not support library programs as they should. I have been here for 7 years and 9 months. In that time, I have never heard of a single book challenge. Amazing. When I was librarian at Pinson Elementary School in Jefferson County, we had multiple challenges each year. The difference is the demographic, I suspect.

I have attached the five system policies that might touch on your areas of concern. Also, we are currently using iBoss as a web filter. I have included some screen captures for your. We accept all the standard blocks in place for education with some exceptions. At teacher request, quite a few sites are white-listed. I have included a capture of those white-listed sites. In addition, a very few sites are blocked for all users. Though "groups" show up at the top of the filter, all users actually have identical access. Screen shot included. I also did a screen capture of current activity and blocked searches. IP addresses and user names are obfuscated.

Please let me know what else you need other than information from individual schools.

Best regards,

Best regards,

Andie

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>>
On 4/22/2014 at 4:00 AM, in message <20140422090003.10.87179@6bc63c61-9b26-441a-8c8a-9f261a8b19c8.prvt.dyno.rt.heroku.com>, Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> wrote:

April 22, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On April 7, 2014:

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.

---

On March 23, 2014:

So sorry, but I'm not available Thursday or Friday, March 20 and 21. E-Rate deadlines are upon us and forms must be checked, tweaked, and submitted.

If you have a technical emergency, please contact John York, Stephen Appleby, Wade Gilbreath, or Chris Jenks.

Sorry for the inconvience!

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>> Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> 03/23/14 04:00 >>>

March 23, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January 20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request, also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together, but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News) requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

---

On March 23, 2014:

The Tuscaloosa City School System will be closed for spring break during the week of March 24. We will return on March 31.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>> Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> 03/23/14 04:00 >>>

March 23, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January 20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request, also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together, but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News) requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

---

On March 23, 2014:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January 20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request, also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together, but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News) requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

Chris, we have had ZERO book or media challenges at any of our libraries
in the last 8 years (as far back as I can go).

On June 6, we will change our web filter from iBOSS to Barracuda. I
sent you copies of both our black and white lists earlier but am
resending those lists along with the default iBOSS block categories. We
use those categories, unaltered, for all groups. We plan to replicate
the white and black lists on our new filter when it is installed. We do
not use keyword blocking.

I'm resending links to our technology policies:
http://www.tuscaloosacityschools.com/pages/Tuscaloosa_City_SchoolDistrict/Departments/HR/Policy_Manual/Section_C__General_School_Admi/cmjvtechnology/cm-jv-technologyresponsibility

http://www.tuscaloosacityschools.com/pages/Tuscaloosa_City_SchoolDistrict/Departments/HR/Policy_Manual/Section_I__Instructional_Progr/il_technologyineduprogram

and to our library selection and challenge policies:
http://www.tuscaloosacityschools.com/pages/Tuscaloosa_City_SchoolDistrict/Departments/HR/Policy_Manual/Section_I__Instructional_Progr/IB__Policy_for_Selection_and_R

http://www.tuscaloosacityschools.com/pages/Tuscaloosa_City_SchoolDistrict/Departments/HR/Policy_Manual/Section_I__Instructional_Progr/IB-R__Request_for_Review_of_Li

http://www.tuscaloosacityschools.com/pages/Tuscaloosa_City_SchoolDistrict/Departments/HR/Policy_Manual/Section_I__Instructional_Progr/Checklist_for_Advisory_Review_

http://www.tuscaloosacityschools.com/pages/Tuscaloosa_City_SchoolDistrict/Departments/HR/Policy_Manual/Section_I__Instructional_Progr/IB-RB__Checklist_for_School_Me

When I worked as a librarian at Pinson Elementary School in the 1990's,
we had multiple book challenges, but the Tuscaloosa City School District
is a very different environment, possibly because Tuscaloosa is home to
the University of Alabama, to Shelton State Jr. College, and to Stillman
College.

As I mentioned before, the one unusual element of our environment is
that we are "early adapters" of Securus. While we receive screen shots
of profanity and other "objectionable" elements that either appear on
the screen (in email, a document, or the web) or which are typed in, we
bring in (to the office or counselor) only those students who make
references to fights and other forms of violence, threats to others,
threats of self-harm, or disturbing situations such as sex with animals,
children, or parents.

I am happy not to have to report any censorship situations at any of
our twenty-four schools. What a difference it makes working in a
university town!

>>> Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> 5/22/2014 6:14 AM
>>>

May 22, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On May 7, 2014:

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.

---

On April 22, 2014:

Hi, Chris.

Somebody on our Technology Listserv said they heard from the state that
we don't have to do this. Being a former librarian myself, and being
enamored of information availability and access, I'm going to see what I
can scrape up for you. How about I send the information I have? Time
permitting, I'll create a nice presentation of the information.
Meanwhile, you'll have SOMETHING.

I just copied you on the email I have sent to our librarians. We have
no library directory. If we did, we would have an organized history of
challenges. That's how we handled it at other school system I've worked
with, but Tuscaloosa City Schools (in my opinion) do not support library
programs as they should. I have been here for 7 years and 9 months. In
that time, I have never heard of a single book challenge. Amazing.
When I was librarian at Pinson Elementary School in Jefferson County, we
had multiple challenges each year. The difference is the demographic, I
suspect.

I have attached the five system policies that might touch on your areas
of concern. Also, we are currently using iBoss as a web filter. I have
included some screen captures for your. We accept all the standard
blocks in place for education with some exceptions. At teacher request,
quite a few sites are white-listed. I have included a capture of those
white-listed sites. In addition, a very few sites are blocked for all
users. Though "groups" show up at the top of the filter, all users
actually have identical access. Screen shot included. I also did a
screen capture of current activity and blocked searches. IP addresses
and user names are obfuscated.

Please let me know what else you need other than information from
individual schools.

Best regards,

Best regards,

Andie

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>>
On 4/22/2014 at 4:00 AM, in message
<20140422090003.10.87179@6bc63c61-9b26-441a-8c8a-9f261a8b19c8.prvt.dyno.rt.heroku.com>,
Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> wrote:

April 22, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On April 7, 2014:

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.

---

On March 23, 2014:

So sorry, but I'm not available Thursday or Friday, March 20 and 21.
E-Rate deadlines are upon us and forms must be checked, tweaked, and
submitted.

If you have a technical emergency, please contact John York, Stephen
Appleby, Wade Gilbreath, or Chris Jenks.

Sorry for the inconvience!

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>> Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> 03/23/14 04:00 >>>

March 23, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone
else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about
it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama
know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our
email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original
request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January
20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the
original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI
request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the
muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us
were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was
blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped
by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request,
also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send
the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I
shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together,
but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on
the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to
the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly
addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News)
requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

---

On March 23, 2014:

The Tuscaloosa City School System will be closed for spring break
during the week of March 24. We will return on March 31.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>> Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> 03/23/14 04:00 >>>

March 23, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone
else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about
it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama
know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our
email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original
request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January
20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the
original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI
request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the
muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us
were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was
blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped
by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request,
also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send
the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I
shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together,
but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on
the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to
the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly
addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News)
requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

---

On March 23, 2014:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone
else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about
it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama
know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our
email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original
request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January
20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the
original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI
request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the
muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us
were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was
blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped
by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request,
also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send
the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I
shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together,
but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on
the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to
the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly
addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News)
requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

---

On April 22, 2014:

None of us has a lot of time to spend on this, but if you have any
information about challenges to books or other materials you have had in
your library, would you send me the information so I can compile it for
these folks, please?

The only policy information I can find is
IB: Policy for Selection and Review of Library Materials
IB-RA: Checklist for Advisory Review Committee: Review of Library
Materials – Fiction and Other Literary Forms
And possibly this:
IDDF-A: Section 504 for Eligible Students
Is that what everyone uses? If you have a different form, please let
me know.

I'll handle the web filter questions since I can just do screen shots.
With no library director to track material challenges, no one has any
idea what has been challenged in the last few years - or ever.

This is the request (and all libraries in Alabama have received the
same request):
https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Please take a look at the link and let me know if you have information
to share.

Thanks, all!

Andie

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On April 22, 2014:

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.

---

On April 7, 2014:

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.

---

On March 23, 2014:

So sorry, but I'm not available Thursday or Friday, March 20 and 21.
E-Rate deadlines are upon us and forms must be checked, tweaked, and
submitted.

If you have a technical emergency, please contact John York, Stephen
Appleby, Wade Gilbreath, or Chris Jenks.

Sorry for the inconvience!

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>> Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> 03/23/14 04:00 >>>

March 23, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone
else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about
it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama
know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our
email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original
request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January
20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the
original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI
request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the
muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us
were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was
blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped
by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request,
also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send
the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I
shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together,
but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on
the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to
the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly
addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News)
requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

---

On March 23, 2014:

The Tuscaloosa City School System will be closed for spring break
during the week of March 24. We will return on March 31.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

>>> Chris Peterson <requests@muckrock.com> 03/23/14 04:00 >>>

March 23, 2014
Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools Records Center
1210 21st Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401-2934

This is a follow up to a previous request:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone
else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about
it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama
know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our
email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original
request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January
20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the
original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI
request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the
muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us
were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was
blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped
by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request,
also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send
the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I
shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together,
but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on
the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to
the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly
addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News)
requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

---

On March 23, 2014:

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.

---

On March 8, 2014:

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.

---

On Feb. 21, 2014:

Good afternoon!

I never received the postal mail request. It is possible that someone
else in the district received that mail. I haven't heard anything about
it.

I will let my fellow technology coordinators in the state of Alabama
know that the request came by mail. We were all looking through our
email and were baffled not to find it.

Thank you for the response.

---

On Feb. 20, 2014:

Ms. Gilbreath:

Thank you so much for reaching out by email. Please find the original
request below, which was sent by postal mail to the district on January
20. It was sent to the following address:

Tuscaloosa City Schools
P.O. Box 038991
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

Please confirm receipt of this email, as well as determine whether the
original request was received.

Best,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

---

On Feb. 19, 2014:

Good afternoon, gentlepersons,

One of my fellow technology coordinators in Alabama forwarded your FOI
request to our professional listserv this afternoon. He included the
muckrock URL specific to his district and said it looked as if all of us
were included in the request.

I searched my entire email account and can't find the email. If it was
blocked by the Barracuda SPAM filter, it will probably have been dumped
by now, but I'll check tomorrow.

The URL below indicates that we should have received an FOI request,
also.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/tuscaloosa-834/alabama-library-challenges-tuscaloosa-city-schools-7868/

Would it be possible to re-send the email so we can make sure to send
the information to the correct address? Thank you for your help. I
shudder to think how long it will take to pull the information together,
but I am an MLIS graduate and former librarian (now working strictly on
the tech side) and my son is a library director.

It would be pretty lame of me to try to ignore this.....

Please be aware that several other tech coordinators have responded to
the listserv that they never saw the email, either.

Best regards,

Andrea Gilbreath
District Technology Coordinator
205 759-3765

---

On Jan. 20, 2014:

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

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 7868
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly
addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News)
requests might be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.