Hello,
This
is a request under the Massachusetts Public Records Law (MGL Chapter 66,
Section 10) for any responsive documents and/or communications concerning book
challenges in your municipality’s library services and schools. These documents
will be used to provide the public with information on censorship efforts and
municipal responses to such challenges for MassTransparency (http://www.masstransparency.org).
Specifically,
I seek the following:
Copies
of any challenges, reconsideration requests, complaints, or other similar
communications from members of the public regarding materials in the
collection of your municipality’s library system to library staff or
administration, broadly construed, between 1 January 2021 and the present
day.
This should include, but not be limited to, “official”
complaints using a form, emails and letters to library staff or the
library in general, or logs of in-person complaints and challenges that
may be kept.
This should not include messages from
profession-specific email lists that staff may be on, or
trade/professional publications (Publisher’s Weekly; American Library
Association newsletters).
Copies
of any challenges, reconsideration requests, complaints or other similar
communications from members of the public regarding materials in the
collection of your municipality’s library system or municipality’s schools
to municipal administrative staff and certain elected and/or appointed
officials, broadly construed, between 1 January 2021 and the present day.
This should include, but not be limited to, “official”
complaints using a form or emails and letters to municipal administration
that may have been forwarded to library staff or school administration.
“Elected and/or appointed officials” should include
citizen-led boards and commissions that may have a role or function in
regard to oversight of schools, libraries, or staff, broadly construed.
Examples would include, but not necessarily be limited to, a Select Board,
Library Board of Trustees, School Committee.
Copies
of any challenges, reconsideration requests, complaints or other similar
communications from members of the public regarding materials in the
collection of the library in a school, in classrooms and/or classroom
libraries, or other materials and/or collections of materials, broadly
construed, to school administration and/or staff between 1 January 2021
and the present day.
This should include, but not be limited to, “official”
complaints using a form or emails and letters to district-level
administration that may have been forwarded to or from other municipal
parties.
This should not include generalized curriculum
concerns.
I
appreciate your forwarding this request to the proper parties if this has reached
the wrong individual.
I
do not believe this should carry a charge, as there is significant public
interest in issues concerning censorship and book challenges, and this will not
be used for a commercial purpose. Furthermore, I do not believe this information
is exempt from disclosure, as this information does not, to the best of my
knowledge and understanding, fall under any specific exemption in the public
records law. If certain exemptions are invoked, please detail each invoked
exemption as part of your response.
Records
should be provided in an electronic format that is searchable and
machine-readable whenever possible.
Thank
you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to your response by 6
October 2023.
-Jeff
Raymond
MassTransparency
Attached please find the responsive documents for your request.
As per previously established practice under the direction of legal counsel and the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Division of Public Records office, identification numbers, passwords, personal home email and physical addresses, personal cell phone numbers, dates of birth, etc. have been redacted under the following exemption(s):
Exemption (c) personnel and medical files or information; also any other materials or data relating to a specifically named individual, the disclosure of which may constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy G. L. c. 4, § 7(26)(c).
Request Date
2023-09-25
Agency Tracking
2023-2852
Acquisition Notes
This record was automatically imported from https://www.townforms.com/FOIADirect-FraminghamMACitizens/
Hello,
This
is a request under the Massachusetts Public Records Law (MGL Chapter 66,
Section 10) for any responsive documents and/or communications concerning book
challenges in your municipality’s library services and schools. These documents
will be used to provide the public with information on censorship efforts and
municipal responses to such challenges for MassTransparency (http://www.masstransparency.org).
Specifically,
I seek the following:
Copies
of any challenges, reconsideration requests, complaints, or other similar
communications from members of the public regarding materials in the
collection of your municipality’s library system to library staff or
administration, broadly construed, between 1 January 2021 and the present
day.
This should include, but not be limited to, “official”
complaints using a form, emails and letters to library staff or the
library in general, or logs of in-person complaints and challenges that
may be kept.
This should not include messages from
profession-specific email lists that staff may be on, or
trade/professional publications (Publisher’s Weekly; American Library
Association newsletters).
Copies
of any challenges, reconsideration requests, complaints or other similar
communications from members of the public regarding materials in the
collection of your municipality’s library system or municipality’s schools
to municipal administrative staff and certain elected and/or appointed
officials, broadly construed, between 1 January 2021 and the present day.
This should include, but not be limited to, “official”
complaints using a form or emails and letters to municipal administration
that may have been forwarded to library staff or school administration.
“Elected and/or appointed officials” should include
citizen-led boards and commissions that may have a role or function in
regard to oversight of schools, libraries, or staff, broadly construed.
Examples would include, but not necessarily be limited to, a Select Board,
Library Board of Trustees, School Committee.
Copies
of any challenges, reconsideration requests, complaints or other similar
communications from members of the public regarding materials in the
collection of the library in a school, in classrooms and/or classroom
libraries, or other materials and/or collections of materials, broadly
construed, to school administration and/or staff between 1 January 2021
and the present day.
This should include, but not be limited to, “official”
complaints using a form or emails and letters to district-level
administration that may have been forwarded to or from other municipal
parties.
This should not include generalized curriculum
concerns.
I
appreciate your forwarding this request to the proper parties if this has reached
the wrong individual.
I
do not believe this should carry a charge, as there is significant public
interest in issues concerning censorship and book challenges, and this will not
be used for a commercial purpose. Furthermore, I do not believe this information
is exempt from disclosure, as this information does not, to the best of my
knowledge and understanding, fall under any specific exemption in the public
records law. If certain exemptions are invoked, please detail each invoked
exemption as part of your response.
Records
should be provided in an electronic format that is searchable and
machine-readable whenever possible.
Thank
you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to your response by 6
October 2023.
-Jeff
Raymond
MassTransparency
Attached please find the responsive documents for your request.
As per previously established practice under the direction of legal counsel and the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Division of Public Records office, identification numbers, passwords, personal home email and physical addresses, personal cell phone numbers, dates of birth, etc. have been redacted under the following exemption(s):
Exemption (c) personnel and medical files or information; also any other materials or data relating to a specifically named individual, the disclosure of which may constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy G. L. c. 4, § 7(26)(c).
Request Date
2023-09-25
Agency Tracking
2023-2852
Acquisition Notes
This record was automatically imported from https://www.townforms.com/FOIADirect-FraminghamMACitizens/