Alabama Library Challenges (Vestavia Hills Library In The Forest)

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

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.

Hello,

Thank you for responding on behalf of the Jefferson County library cooperative. Answers to questions and comments below.

1. We have not received any requests for information from the State. Is that forthcoming?

As noted in our original letter (see below and the letter mailed to each library director), we are a group of researchers. There will be no request for information from any state office that would come from us. Please visit http://mappinginfoaccess.org/ for more information on our research!

 2. Since most of our directors have just been made aware of your request, it will take longer than the deadline posted via your email to provide the information requested. Is there another deadline?

Under Alabama law, there is no deadline for public records requests. Rather, the law requires that public agencies process requests within a reasonable amount of time. We appreciate all practical expediency, as well!

 3. Several library directors are asking their attorney about the
request before they respond.

Understandable. We are happy to discuss the scope of our request, and please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or clarifications.

 4. This is a lot of information for smaller libraries in our county
to handle, and they may even need assistance with it which we will
try to provide if necessary.

Understood, again. Since this is part of a public records survey, we understand that all components are not necessarily applicable to all libraries. To make things easier, we ask that each library respond to each component (including a "no documents" response to sections that are irrelevant) to speed up our processing and eliminate the need for unnecessary followups. Again, we're happy to answer questions about the scope of our request.

  5. We would appreciate your patience with us in meeting this request.

Absolutely!

Thank you so much for your help.

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.

Hello,

To clarify, this request has been sent individually to each library in Alabama. This email is intended for the director of the Vestavia Hills Library.

Please advise?

Thank you!

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.