Showing posts with label MeganFox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MeganFox. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Public Libraries Must Unblock Social Media Participants

Public libraries must unblock social media participants.  For reporting truthful news about libraries that library directors or library boards do not want people to hear, I have been blocked by a number of libraries, including @BKLYNlibrary, @BPL, @ElyriaLibrary (an association library, meaning a private non-profit, despite the name), @KCLibrary, @LHPL, @NorthbrookPL, @OrlandPkLibrary.  For example, "You are blocked from following @bpl and viewing @bpl's Tweets. Learn more."

Blocking means I cannot read anything published on that particular site, such as Twitter or Facebook, and that blocks my First Amendment rights and my ability to report on activities at that library that might have helped the community.  In other words, blocking harms the community generally as voices are illegally cut off from the conversation.  Blocking also makes a mockery out of any library's claim to value free speech, intellectual freedom, and the First Amendment.  So blocking harms the libraries themselves.  Blocking, in the case of public entities, simply hurts everyone.

I have even been blocked by libraries because individual employees who do not agree with my reports about the American Library Association run the social media accounts and block me on their own accord, like @CHPLNJ.  When I informed the library director, I was immediately unblocked.  I have since been occasionally but regularly retweeting that library to help bring attention to its programming.  And that's what I might do with the other libraries were I to regain access.

The ACLU and its state affiliates have recently won a string of legal matters showing that public entities may not block social media participants.

Further, my co-author Kevin DuJan and his partner Megan Fox won a $55,000 settlement from the Orland Park Public Library [OPPL] (that still blocked me until I wrote the email below) in part for blocking them on Facebook.  They wrote a book about the ordeal, about how OPPL allowed and hid child p—rnography from the public with the active help of the American Library Association [ALA].  The book is highly readable and is like a bible of open government and FOIA actions and counteractions needed to expose public corruption and harm.  Buy and read, "Shut Up!: The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment," pictured at top right.  "I hope someone writes about this someday," said Barbara M. Jones, Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the ALA.  Well, there you go.

Finally, for those who need more convincing, even ALA sides with free speech on this issue. "Nonetheless, there is a strong argument that opening social media for public comment creates a designated public forum as it does in the analogous situation where a governmental entity opens a meeting room or exhibit space for public use.  ....  A social media account serves as the digital face of the library and should maintain the same level of customer service provided in the physical library."  Source:
Here are the reasons ALA says is okay to remove content—I never crossed the line—notice "temporary blocking," not the permanent blocking I've experienced:
Unacceptable behavior that may result in the removal of a post or the temporary blocking of a user could include speech that is not protected by the First Amendment, such as copyright violations, obscenity, child p[—]nography, defamatory or libelous comments, or imminent or true threats against the library, library staff or other users.  ....
A library can urge its users to adhere to the established acceptable use policies of the host platform and to engage in civil discourse, but as a governmental entity subject to the strictures of the First Amendment (unlike the private entity that may be the host platform), the library will have an obligation to regulate its social media pursuant to First Amendment law and cannot restrict speech on the basis that the private entity might do so.  Courts likely would find that the library or other governmental entity could not avoid its obligations under the First Amendment by using a private platform.
Bingo:
Best practices include developing a procedure through which libraries notify patrons of why they are being blocked, provide an appellate process within the library for the patron to challenge the removal, and determine an acceptable time period for the patron to proceed through a reinstatement procedure.  Permanently blocking a patron from the social media site based on prior comments could be considered a prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment.
90-minute workshop,
10 Jan 2019, 2:30pm ET
None of the libraries that blocked me notified me.  Zero.  Now I have ALA as a reliable source to prove, "Permanently blocking a patron from the social media site based on prior comments could be considered a prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment."  Thank you.

And regarding open government FOIA issues, ALA holds:
The social media content of a public library or publicly funded academic library can be subject to an open records, or Freedom of Information Act, request.  All user’s posts that are removed for any reason whatsoever should be securely retained in accordance with your organization's retention schedule.  The policy for how long a library retains these social media posts should be clearly stated in its social media policy and reviewed by legal counsel.
So all libraries should clear out their social media block lists and avoid placing blocks in the first place, especially if the reason for the block is that they don't like what reporters are reporting.  I recommend librarians, library directors, and library boards of trustees read this ALA source and write good social media use policies based thereupon: "Social Media Guidelines for Public and Academic Libraries."  Free tip from SafeLibraries® brand library educational services that could save lots of time and trouble.


Below is one of the emails I wrote to the various libraries to try to clear the blocks—and let me note that in less than a day since I sent these messages, the First Amendment was respected by 1) Brooklyn Public Library @BKLYNlibrary, 2) Elyria Public Library @ElyriaLibrary, and 3) Orland Park Public Library @OrlandPkLibrary, so kudos to them:



Request for Unblock per First Amendment Jurisprudence


Dear Orland Park Public Library Director Mary Weimar,

Your governmental digital media including your Twitter account @OrlandPkLibrary blocks my digital media reader/commenter accounts including my Twitter account @SafeLibraries. Given recent legal decisions requiring governmental digital media to be open to all and to not block anyone, I am hereby asking you to unblock my digital media accounts. I will then be able to read and comment upon your public statements again.

I am writing this email in support of the First Amendment in an effort to end the governmental censorship as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort for all involved. Simply unblock and unmute me.

My next step would be to file a FOIA request for block lists, something that would take more time and money to address and that must be addressed. So here's your chance to voluntarily support free speech quickly with a minimal amount of effort and money expended. A win-win for everyone.

Thank you.
--
----------
Dan Kleinman, Owner of SafeLibraries® brand library educational services
Email:          SafeLibraries@gmail.com
Reportage:  SafeLibraries®
                     Sexual Harassment of Librarians
Twitter:        SafeLibraries
Facebook:   Dan Kleinman
About Me:   tinyurl.com/AboutDan
Address:     641 Shunpike Rd #123, Chatham, NJ 07928
Phone:        973-610-8296; 845-397-7233
Donations:  tinyurl.com/SafeLibrariesDonation



Steven Bell
NOTE ADDED 9 JANUARY 2019:

See also:


NOTE ADDED 9 JANUARY 2019:

Kudos to Birmingham Public Library @BPL that has now unblocked me as well.  Thank you.


NOTE ADDED 10 JANUARY 2019:

One graphic replaced with another featuring an ALA webinar on drafting social media policies that being given today:
Also, today I have been unblocked by Liberty Hill Public Library @LHPL and by Northbrook Public Library @NorthbrookPL, so kudos to them as well.

I remain blocked by only @KCLibrary.  And I'm also blocked by the Nebraska Library Commission @NLC_News.

Let me add that my being unblocked as I was is very gratifying mainly because the unblocking was done so quickly and at so little cost to any community, basically $0.  Where I stay blocked may result in escalating efforts to comply with First Amendment law or not that will be only the library's own doing.


NOTE ADDED 11 JANUARY 2019:

I have been unblocked by the Nebraska Library Commission @NLC_News, so good on them.  They did not know why I was on the block list with obvious spam accounts.  So I responded as follows, and they responded that they appreciated the heads up:
Thank you!

My experience tells me that individual librarians having access to the public accounts act on their own to block me, likely in violation of any existing social media policy.  At least one library director told me this.

Background is that I am have for almost two decades been critical of American Library Association policy.  As a result, one prominent librarian sent out word that other librarians should block me on any social media so that I would get a black mark and be censored by that social media.  Hundreds blocked me, still do.  Some platforms blocked me as a result of all the negativity, the heckler's veto, as it were.  It is more than likely that some of those hundreds of librarians took advantage of their ability to access the social media sites of government entities to block me there as well to increase the power of the heckler's veto.  I suspect that's how I ended up on your block list.  Who knows, it may be an issue to look into so it doesn't cause further headache, especially in light of the recent ACLU litigation finding that public entity accounts should not be blocking people.

So now that I'm unblocked, I will add @NLC_News to my public list of state libraries.  Done.  Hopefully you'll get a few more eyes now.  By the way, ALA Midwinter starts soon, and if you add #alamw19 into your tweets, many people will view them at that time.

Thanks again.
@KCLibrary still blocks me.

Let me add that many in ALA itself block me, including top leadership, including the president herself, and even though she had been extraordinarily nice to me in the past when I met her at FTRF45 at Scholastic in New York City and she insisted on introducing me to Barbara Jones, then head of OIF.  But ALA is not a public entity so I'm not asking them to unblock me.  Still, for an organization so dedicated to free speech and intellectual freedom, blocking legitimate criticism looks inconsistent, at the least.  It looks like, in their own words, it "could be considered a prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment."  If you mean things, you need to be held to account.


NOTE ADDED 15 JANUARY 2019:



NOTE ADDED 16 JANUARY 2019:

Yay!  The last library to block me has finally unblocked me.  Kudos to Kansas City Public Library @KCLibrary (that's the one in Missouri).

ANNOUNCEMENT


And now, an announcement.  I am very happy that all this was resolved with a minimum of time and effort for the libraries concerned.  I did this with a few emails or a few online forms or even a phone call here and there, always politely, and without the need for filling any freedom of information act requests that can cause some libraries to run for legal advice that only drives up the costs for the communities.  This is the way I usually try to solve problems.

I say this because some of those librarians who block me say defamatory things about me just to convince others to silence me as well.  I mean sick, sick stuff.  Once my wife was in a library when a librarian, not knowing her patron was my wife, began telling really disturbing things about me that my wife knew were not true.  My child was there too listening.  No kidding, the effort to defame me is so widespread that some librarian randomly told my wife how awful I am without even knowing she was my wife.

Another time a reporter told me he didn't want to take my call because of what ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom told him about me.  But he suspected he may have been misled so he was willing to give me a chance.  When what I reported to him and when the reliable sources I supplied turned out to be 100% true, his words, then he believed me and then he did the media report and I appeared on television as a result.

ALA itself even defames me, sometimes openly and sometimes by just sticking the knife in my back without my knowing.  No honor at all.  Openly, ALA's head of its Office for Intellectual Freedom, then named James LaRue, mocked me on Twitter: "ALA in Orlando: blood drives, school supplies, many contributions. We stand by the victims, we offer aid. @Safelibraries does ... nothing."  Oh yes, @jaslar blocks me on Twitter, the then head of the Office for Intellectual Freedom.  Not joking.


Behind my back, ALA's OIF tells all librarians that if I should try to attend a lecture where ultimately ALA trained librarians to be homophobic using a homophobic teacher they knew was homophobic but still rehired, ALA should be informed so they could excise the obviously harmful parts of the training.  Ultimately ALA #2 at OIF, Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Esq., now the Acting Director for the second time, used her private email dcs47@hushmail.com to order all librarians to destroy any notes or recordings of the homophobic training.  But first, she sent this, emphasis hers: "IF Dan Kleinman or some of our detractors attend, we will need to change our content.  We've dealt with this before, so if it is an open webinar, we just need to know that."

So librarians and the American Library Association are adept at defaming people who report on ALA's harmful policies and practices, such as homophobia.  They never debate honestly, it's merely smear after smear.  Because they know they would lose.  So this is likely part of how I ended being blocked by so many free speech librarians and libraries and even a state library.

All this so people won't hear my message, backed up by reliable sources, that ALA intentionally harms communities including children via dangerous policies and intimidating tactics.  But I won't go into more detail here.  Just read the "Big Picture" section of this page in the upper right and you'll get the idea.

I handle all interactions with libraries and librarians in about as friendly and non-confrontational a manner as possible, as seen in this case.  So if you're a librarian still blocking me, like the ALA President herself, Loida Garcia-Febo, perhaps it's time to think for yourselves and remove the blocks!

—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2019/01/public-libraries-must-unblock.html

On Twitter: 
@ACLU, @ALAlibrary, @BKLYNlibrary, @BPL, @CHPLNJ, @ElyriaLibrary,
@KCLibrary, @LHPL, @NorthbrookPL, @OIF, @OrlandPkLibrary

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Librarians Ordered to Destroy Public Documents Revealing Homophobia at American Library Association and Crime in Libraries

Librarians were ordered to destroy documents revealing both homophobia at the American Library Association and crime in public libraries, especially the viewing of child p0rnography.

The evidence is an email to libraries throughout Illinois by Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Esq., the Deputy Director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom.  This order to destroy documents is out and open incitement to violate various open government laws, and to cover up ALA's "exposure."  And almost everyone complied, but not all.

That this incitement was done knowingly and purposefully is evident from the lawyer's use of her private email address instead of her ALA email address, similar to the actions of former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, a.k.a. "Richard Windsor."

And all to hide her Office's homophobia and ALA's ordering librarians to destroy evidence of crime in libraries and calls not to record such evidence in the first place.  This is documented in a frightened librarian's email I published at "Brave Librarian Speaks Out as ALA Facilitates CHILD P[]rn."  She revealed, among other shocking things, "Blondie said that Orland was focusing only on you and ignoring your friend because he is gay and it gets messy to attack a gay guy. .... I also remember that a jab was made at you ... that you should not be hanging out all day with a gay guy with your kids anyway."  To me, those are homophobic statements, particularly the latter.  ALA's Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Esq., then rehired this homophobic trainer for more of the same training.  (The trainer dropped the gig when this was exposed.)  That's one more thing that makes ALA homophobic—no one who isn't homophobic knowingly hires homophobic trainers who teach homophobia—but ALA did.

Of possible interest, the trainer went on to sue me twice in federal court, losing both times, and a settlement offer was made that the case would be dropped if I censored this publication revealing ALA's homophobia: "Gay Hate @ Your Library."  So go read what ALA's censorship police tried to censor about themselves via its homophobic proxy.

Below is a series of my messages on this topic, followed by the actual text of the damning email from ALA's lawyer:







Here is the actual email from Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Esq., Deputy Director of American Library Association's "Office for Intellectual Freedom" and, when you read the email by "dcs," you'll know why I put quotation marks around "Office for Intellectual Freedom" (emphasis added):



Subject: URGENT -­ must delete all documents related to 17 Dec crisis communications workshop
Date: Friday, April 4, 2014 at 4:46:24 PM Central Daylight Time
From: dcs47@hushmail.com
To: nbennyhoff@illinoisheartland.org

[NOTE: BCCs are not shown, but this document was received in response to a FOIA request for emails sent to Orland Park Public Library, Orland Park, IL, [OPPL]’s director Mary Weimar and OPPL’s public relations employee Bridget Bittman]

In case you are not yet aware there is a situation where we have exposure related to the 17 Dec crisis communications workshop facilitated by RAILS. We are under scrutiny and FOIA requests went out this morning fishing for documents and video. Remove these from your servers today and destroy hard copies. This is an attempt by two individuals to obtain privileged information from the event. It does not appear this is much more than a hunch on the part of requesters but we should not retain any materials from the event as a precaution. As this was a candid and private function not meant for the public it would be best if we purge any records any of us have related to the event. Taking parts of discussion out of context would be harmful so we cannot allow anything from 17 Dec to be produced in response to FOIA. It is advisable to be proactive here and get ahead of this before the individuals gain traction. The OPPL has already been served with a FOIA and it appears the requesters are working down a list and serving the rest of us. These are the same two individuals who have been causing problems since October. They will make hay out of anything they obtain. Do not facilitate this in any way. Leslie at IHLS and Brian at RAILS should run point on deleting all materials before FOIAs are served. There is still time to get ahead of this if we act today. Deny, delete, defend. - dcs



The above is based in part on work I originally published in 2015 as "Deny, Delete, Defend; American Library Association Orders Public Librarians To Destroy Public Documents To Preclude Public Disclosure of its 'Exposure'" on Storify which has since announced it is closing and removing all content.  Hence the need to record this information here.

And ALA has yet to suffer any consequences for its own homophobia, its hiding its own homophobia, and calling for library crimes to be hidden from the public and for whistleblowers to be attacked verbally and financially, which actually happened to me.

The above is all my opinion, as usual, but backed up with evidence anyone can see.

—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2018/04/librarians-ordered-to-destroy.html

On Twitter: 
@ALALibrary @OIF @OrlandPkLibrary



Saturday, April 1, 2017

FOIA a Library: Here's How

Is your public library doing something illegal?  One way to find out is to file a Freedom of Information Act request [FOIA] or the like.  The National Freedom of Information Coalition lists state FOIA laws:
Afraid filing a FOIA has negative consequences?  Contact me.  I'll file the FOIA.  I'll keep our communication confidential.  Librarians, especially sexually harassed librarians, this applies to you as well.

Know that American Library Association [ALA] trains librarians to destroy public documents in violation of record retention laws precisely to block the usefulness of FOIA laws in exposing public corruption.  If the records are destroyed or never created in the first place, FOIA laws have reduced utility.  ALA knows this.  It even ordered librarians to destroy all notes taken during one of these trainings on destroying records:
Kevin DuJan, along with Megan Fox, sought public records under FOIA for years from a library in Orland Park, IL, that, following ALA advice and with ALA direct involvement, allowed and covered up child pornography viewing.  It is ALA policy that facilitates child pornography viewing in public libraries nationwide, so ALA is keen to advise libraries how to silence whistleblowers so as to protect its own policy:
The library used one excuse after the next to deny or delay the records that belong to the public or to ignore the FOIA requests in the first place.  For years.  It then blamed massive legal fees on the whistleblowers and even sought and obtained a tax increase.  Filings were made with the state's attorney general and law suits were filed, with the library losing nearly every case and the whistleblowers winning access to public records proving the child porn coverup, and even $55,000:
Kevin and Megan authored a terrific book about how a public library blew up a simple request into a multi year, major money and public relations debacle.  It is like a guidebook on how to handle FOIA requests and what to expect from public bodies that refuse to comply with sunshine laws.  I highly recommend this:
The below FOIA requests were written days ago by Kevin DuJan and sent to a public library in Illinois.  I am presenting them as examples of FOIA requests on public libraries.

Sample: "In Orland Park, employees who complained about sexual harassment were targeted for termination and pressured to quit after they came to managers with concerns about the hostile work environment.  Is that happening at your library too?"  Notice first he asked for specific documents.  FOIA allows for that.  Then he asked a question that need not be answered under FOIA, but that gives context to his document request.

Put them both to good use:


Dear Arlington Heights Public Library FOIA Compliance Team,

MEDIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

Re: Research Project #2017-03-28 ArlingtonHeightsStudy-01 

This is a noncommercial FOIA Request from a member of the news media for electronic production of documents to this email address, to my attention, using the above referenced research project code. You have 5 business days under the FOIA statute to comply. Please do not redact any non-exempt information on the documents and please be sure to include all BCC lines in any emails produced. All documents should be produced as PDFs, with the exception of photographs (which should be JPEG), audio files (which should be MP3), and video (which should be MP4 or MOV video files). If the document files are too large to transmit in one single email, I authorize you to transmit them to me either using a free file sharing service such as DropBox or to send multiple emails (as many as required to send all of the documents asked of you). 

I seek the following numbered categories of documents for my research pursuant to a news article I am writing that has interest and value to the public: 

Copy of the following:

1. As detailed in the book SHUT UP!: The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment, the Orland Park Public Library Board was caught violating the law by covering up child pornography and other sex crimes that were allowed by staff to occur in that library -- in addition to taxpayer funds being used to buy gold jewelry and pay for lavish meals and trips for board members. The Arlington Heights Public Library is being studied as a comparison to the Orland Park Public Library to see if your staff and board members behave the way that Orland Park's staff and board behaved. To that end, please produce the 2017 to date receipts and reimbursement documents for all staff and board travel and meals this year. This includes but is not limited to all the receipts for meals and/or food/beverage spending, any and all reimbursement forms completed authorizing such spending, mileage receipts, airline tickets, hotel bills, and any other paperwork supporting the spending of taxpayer funds for staff and/or board members to eat, drink, or travel in the year 2017. It also includes but is not limited to any food/beverage that is consumed by board members during board meetings. I want to see if you are abusing your positions and violating the Illinois Local Library Act the way that Orland Park's board members were caught doing. 

2. Similar to #1 above, please produce the 2016 spending documents for staff and board member travel and food/beverage. 

3. For the years 2016 and 2017, please produce all receipts and spending authorization for gift purchases using taxpayer funds. In Orland Park, corrupt staff and board members were caught shopping at the Noral Diamond Jewelers store buying gold jewelry and other gifts for themselves using public money. They were also caught making gluttonous purchases at the Orland Park Bakery for themselves amounting to many thousands of dollars, as the Library Director had an incurable sweet tooth. Has Arlington Heights Public Library been doing anything like this too? Gift cards and anything considered "a prize" should also be included in your FOIA production regarding gift purchases. 

4. Please produce all receipts and spending authorization for any purchases, donations, or other funds going to either the American Library Association or the Illinois Library Association. With Orland Park Public Library, the book SHUT UP! documents the ALA and ILA repeatedly giving the Orland Park Public Library terrible advice and encouraging staff and board members to break the law and hide documents from the public while allowing child pornography and other sex crimes to continue at that library. How much influence does the ALA and ILA have in Arlington Heights? Please produce all ALA/ILA membership charges, purchases of tickets/passes to ALA or ILA events, etc. to establish your library's connections to these two organizations. 

5. Please produce your legal bills/invoices for the years 2016 and 2017 to date. The book SHUT UP! documents how the law firm Klein Thorpe Jenkins gave the Orland Park Public Library terrible legal advice that got the library in hot water for violating both the FOIA statute and the Open Meetings Act. Does Klein Thorpe Jenkins provide your library with bad legal advice too? There seems to be a pattern where libraries that receive legal advice from KTJ are the ones most likely to be found violating the law and squandering taxpayer resources. 

6. Please produce all of your internal incident reports for the years 2016 and 2017. As the book SHUT UP! documents, the Orland Park Public Library was plagued with sex crimes for many years, with staff allowing men to masturbate openly in the library, access child pornography without police being called, and sexually harass and stalk women. The ALA and ILA appear to have advised the OPPL to cover-up these incidents and look the other way when they happened. Has your library been doing that too? 

7. Please produce the last 10 write-ups given to your employees. A write-up for the purposes of this FOIA request is any document given to an employee by a manager documenting the manager's opinion that the employee violated library policy and was being disciplined for some reason. In Orland Park, bad managers were able to be identified by studying the write-ups they issued and looking at which employees were being unfairly harassed by management. In Orland Park, employees who complained about sexual harassment were targeted for termination and pressured to quit after they came to managers with concerns about the hostile work environment. Is that happening at your library too? 

I look forward to working with you on this study of the Arlington Heights Public Library to see how your library compares to Orland Park and if you are doing any of the terrible things that staff and board members were caught doing in Orland Park. I am most interested in understanding your spending patterns, your treatment of your employees, and how you handle sexual incidents and crimes that occur in your library (and if you cover these up or try to hide the truth the way that Orland Park did). Please let me know if you need any clarity for FOIA production. I invite you to read our findings on Orland Park in the book SHUT UP!: The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged on the First Amendment. If you are doing anything bad in Arlington Heights, that information will be immediately reported to the public as it was with the Orland Park Public Library. 

Thank you!

Kevin DuJan
Story Time Digital Media

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Dear Arlington Heights Public Library FOIA compliance team,

MEDIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

Re: Research Project #2017-03-31 ArlingtonHeightsStudy-02

This is a noncommercial FOIA Request from a member of the news media for electronic production of documents to this email address, to my attention, using the above referenced research project code. You have 5 business days under the FOIA statute to comply. Please do not redact any non-exempt information on the documents and please be sure to include all BCC lines in any emails produced. All documents should be produced as PDFs, with the exception of photographs (which should be JPEG), audio files (which should be MP3), and video (which should be MP4 or MOV video files). If the document files are too large to transmit in one single email, I authorize you to transmit them to me either using a free file sharing service such as DropBox or to send multiple emails (as many as required to send all of the documents asked of you). 

I seek the following numbered categories of documents for my research pursuant to a news article I am writing that has interest and value to the public: 

Copy of the following:

1. Please produce all records for a holiday/Christmas/end-of-year party for your staff and/or board members (if you held such an event) for the years 2014 through 2016 inclusive. I assume you held such an event as many public libraries seem to love wasting taxpayer money on parties for yourselves (despite such parties offering no public benefit). In the book SHUT UP!: The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment, it's documented that the Orland Park Public Library wasted thousands of dollars through the years throwing lavish parties for staff and board members, including buying expensive items at a local jewelry store to give each other as gifts or "awards" at these parties. I want to see if the Arlington Heights Public Library similarly wastes the public's money on extravagant holiday/Christmas/end-of-the-year parties for staff/board members. Are you doing this too? 

2. Please produce all records of payment and invoices for performers and/or presenters who performed/presented at the library in the years 2016 and 2017 inclusive. In SHUT UP!, it's documented that the Orland Park Public Library wasted thousands of dollars through the years hiring a self-proclaimed "paranormalist" to come to the library and talk about ghosts that he believes haunt various places, such as libraries. (Ghosts are not real.) The OPPL also paid to have imams come to the library to promote Islam and encourage conversion of Orland Park residents to Islam while simultaneously banning Christmas music at the library in December. (Islam, unfortunately, is real.) I want to see if the Arlington Heights Public Library is doing any crazy/wasteful things such as this too. Are you? 

3. Please produce any records of enrollment, attendance, and/or registration for the ALA's summer 2017 conference for any staff and/or board members who intend to attend this event, which I feel is mostly propaganda aimed at harming local communities by teaching library staff to follow radical Leftist ALA diktat instead of responding to the actual wants and needs of the community. 

Thank you!

Kevin DuJan
Story Time Digital Media

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Story Time Digital Media is a digital news service in electronic format presenting video content and in-depth articles to the public (free of charge) as well as newsletters distributed to the public on a regular rolling basis. Our focus is on topics pertaining to the welfare and safety of children and being a watchdog exposing government abuse, graft, and corruption in the state of Illinois and nationally. We are experts on government transparency laws, the Freedom of Information Act, the Open Meetings Act, the Illinois Local Library Act, and the First Amendment Right to Petition our government for change and redress of grievances. Read our new book SHUT UP! The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment, about the pattern of abuse and intimidation that the Orland Park Public Library engaged in to silence and censor its critics and attempt to chill the Free Speech and other protected activity of investigative reporters who uncovered unreported crimes happening in what had become a dangerous place for children. SHUT UP! is available now on Amazon.com and has been targeted for suppression, censoring, and banning by members of the American Library Association who do not want people to know the truth about the ALA or its Officer for Intellectual Freedom. 

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NOTE ADDED 27 DECEMBER 2018:

Updated a link.

See also:


URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2017/04/foia-library.html

On Twitter:
@ahml @ALALibrary @ECWDogs @HillBuzz @MeganFoxWriter @NFOIC @OrlandPkLibrary

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Sunshine Week: Public Libraries and Sunshine Laws

It's Sunshine Week, the "annual nationwide celebration of access to public information and what it means for you and your community."

Sunshine laws involve the public's right to public meetings or to copies of public documents made by public entities such as public libraries.

Public libraries go out of their way to ensure open access to nearly anything (facilitating even child pornography despite the law, but I digress) so it should be a no-brainer that libraries will be the most compliant with sunshine laws.

Not so fast.  Right during Sunshine Week, public libraries have come to the fore in the different ways they respond to sunshine laws and the different ways legal process addresses the issues.  Here are publications that arose during or around Sunshine Week that illustrate public libraries may need remedial education on sunshine laws and the public's right to know:
As can be seen, public libraries need remedial education on sunshine laws and the public's right to know.

The American Library Association's "United for Libraries, Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations" provides guidance to library boards on how to handle public meetings:
Nowhere in that guidance is any reference to any sunshine law.  The "Sample Meeting Agenda" doesn't even include a sample of important open meeting inclusions such as listing with sufficient detail the reasons for an executive session.

Let's hope someone at ALA will have read this and that it prompts an improvement in the information ALA provides to libraries nationwide.  The public's right to know is just as important in public libraries as it is in other public institutions.  Libraries, of all places, should know that.

Perhaps the ALA's poor guidance to libraries is the cause of massive sunshine law failures that caused a library in Orland Park, IL, to spend over a quarter million dollars and even raise taxes to defend against multiple open meeting and public record request violations that it lost again and again for years.  All to cover up the crime of child pornography viewing on unfiltered Internet computers.  It was ultimately exposed.  Had the library complied with the law the first time, that huge public waste of time and resources and even the tax increase would never have happened.  The library and ALA even stooped to homophobia to attempt to hide the child pornography and scare off the whistleblowers, one of whom was gay.  ALA has not even incorporated this debacle into its guidance for libraries, except for how steps could be taken to block future whistleblowers.

Buy Shut Up! on Amazon
This multiyear effort to hide records and meetings from the public resulted in the publication of a book that serves as an educational yet humorous guide for how to prepare for and handle the many excuses public bodies will use to thwart the public's right to know.  Yes, shockingly the book deals with public libraries, supposedly the most open of all public buildings, but it applies to any public institution.  If you are a Sunshine Week aficionado, then this is your Bible to buy:
Lastly, know that I am involved in a lawsuit against a library that, in my opinion, violated the open meeting law to ensure children retained access to Internet pornography in the children's section of the library, even after children had been viewing such material there.  At the end of this multi-year civil rights suit, I'll FOIA the records of all the money spent to ensure the public stayed unaware of a policy approved in possible violation of the law.

So stay tuned!
—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2017/03/sunshine-week.html

On Twitter:
@ALA_United @RCFP @SunshineWeek

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Brave Librarian Speaks Out as ALA Facilitates CHILD Porn

Judith Krug defending child pornography in public libraries.
Former Illinois ACLU board member Judith Krug became American Library Association's greatest leader.  In the late Sixties, she personally set up the rules librarians nationwide follow to this day to the detriment of many communities.  One brave/anonymous librarian speaks out about her legacy of destruction, literally; his/her email is published for the first time anywhere below.

One of those rules from Judith Krug was that librarians are not to take action against child pornography viewers in public libraries:
"A librarian is not a legal process," Krug said. "There is not librarian in the country -- unless she or he is a lawyer -- who is in the position to determine what he or she is looking at is indeed child pornography."   
Source: "Libraries vs. Police in a Suit Sparked by Porn; Kent Case Centers on People's Rights and Protections," by Jeffrey M. Barker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter, 12 August 2002.
That statement of hers is an example of policy guidance she gave to public libraries nationwide:
Libraries and librarians are not in a position to make those decisions for library users or for citizens generally.  Only courts have constitutional authority to determine, in accordance with due process, what materials are obscenity, child pornography, or “harmful to minors.”
....
As for obscenity and child pornography, prosecutors and police have adequate tools to enforce criminal laws.  Libraries are not a component of law enforcement efforts naturally directed toward the source, i.e., the publishers, of such material. 
Source: "Guidelines and Considerations for Developing a Public Library Internet Use Policy," by Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association, as archived 7 March 2016.
ALA "guidelines" for libraries to ignore child pornography.
Her policy to ignore child pornography in public libraries was followed by libraries:
Accordingly, even if the library employs a computer technician who could demonstrate that the patron was viewing child pornography on the computer, this is not a reportable criminal offense, the library’s computer technician is not under any statutory reporting obligation, and the Library’s Records Confidentiality Act may be violated if such a report is made. 
Source: "A Patron is Viewing What Appears to be Child Pornography On a Library Computer; What Should Be Done?," by Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, LTD, Library Law, 27 April 2011.
Library removing ghost of Judith Krug as ALA
hides policy advising librarians to ignore child porn viewing.
Library directors even forced their own librarians to cover up child porn viewing:
Even library schools teach this dangerous ALA policy, e.g.:
Buy Shut Up! or
borrow from library.
Finally change has taken place—after decades—and after
  1. over a decade of my own work,
  2. the listing of the American Library Association on the annual Dirty Dozen List by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, and
  3. the publication of a book by public library child pornography whistleblowers Megan Fox and Kevin DuJan, the latter being my SafeLibraries co-author. 
Finally, the American Library Association removed from its "guidelines" the directive to ignore child pornography.  See:

Four years straight ALA has been on NCOSE's Dirty Dozen List
as a "Top Contributor to Sexual Exploitation."
Not only did ALA remove the directive to ignore child pornography, but it removed the entirety of the "guidelines"!  It basically censored itself!  The "guidelines" are still titled as such, but they now exist as a wholesale copy from another ALA policy that was not so prominently promoted previously.

And to cover up this debacle, ALA claimed the wholesale copying of a preexisting policy was merely an "excerpt," which is another in a long line of flat out lies to cover up its shameful and illegal activities, some of which can be seen in the brave/anonymous librarian letter published at the bottom.  Compare:
To the librarians who mock public library child pornography whistleblowers, we whistleblowers forced ALA to completely remove its publicly visible dangerous policy that facilitated child pornography in public libraries nationwide.

That said, the ALA policy still suffers from serious flaws.  For example, it still decries "censorship" although the US Supreme Court ruled blocking Internet porn in public libraries does not violate the First Amendment.

And in a hilarious instance of ridiculous diktat, it states that the safety of children using Internet computers in colleges and universities can only be assured by their own parents.  No college student ever brings his mommy into the college library to protect him from Internet porn.  Yet here's ALA providing guidance making that a requirement:
Academic libraries usually do not have the same censorship problems as public and school libraries. Most users of academic libraries are students (over 18 years old) and faculty. As a result, users in academic libraries can freely access Internet resources. It is important that parents are aware that their children can be exposed to information that may not be age-appropriate when their children use academic libraries. Parents need to be mindful that, as in any other public space, children need to have parental supervision.  
Source: "Libraries and the Internet Toolkit," by Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association, 29 May 2007, accessed 17 December 2016.
But ALA has really topped itself in the area of child pornography facilitation in public libraries.  Remember I said ALA changed its policy as a result of child porn whistleblowers? Recall I said it not only changed the policy but removed it completely, replacing it will an older, preexisting policy?  It did, but it wasn't because of the obvious reason.

The obvious reason for ALA to delete its policy facilitating child pornography in public libraries after years of pressure is that it has seen the light and no longer supports its previous policy position created by Judith Krug of the ACLU/ALA almost half a century ago.

But that is not the reason ALA removed its child porn facilitation policy.

ALA removed its child pornography facilitation policy to take it out of the public's view.  It removed the policy so child porn whistleblowers could no longer point a finger at evidence of the policy.  ALA has essentially gone dark on its child porn facilitation policies.  It fully intends to continue to facilitate child porn in public libraries.

There are a number of ways to know ALA is continuing to facilitate child porn in libraries:
  1. It removed from public view its long standing policy to facilitate child pornography in public libraries, but only after long and determined effort by child porn whistleblowers, including the publication of a 600+ page book entitled, "Shut Up! The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment."
  2. It did this silently.  It did not announce any new policy to report child pornography.  It simply deleted the policy, substituted another one and claimed it was an excerpt.  There was no announcement of any change.  Neither Library Journal nor ALA's own American Libraries ran any stories on the new policy.
  3. When one librarian (Karen Jensen) wrote in School Library Journal about how child porn should be reported in public libraries, she was basically ignored.  No one other than myself paid her any attention or retweeted her or commented on her writing.  She did not win any awards, like the "Intellectual Freedom Award" one library won for protecting child pornography.  It's just forgotten.  She's forgotten.  See: "Plan to Report Child Pornography in Public Libraries."
  4. ALA is keeping in place all other policies and practices that help facilitate child porn in libraries, as I've listed above.  If it were truly interested in stamping out child pornography facilitation in public libraries, it would not only change its policy but also make other changes to effectuate the new policy.  It simply has not done or said anything.  Silence.
  5. ALA whips up opposition to me and any child porn whistleblowers.  We are repeatedly attacked, even by the leader of ALA's "Office for Intellectual Freedom" who blocks me on Twitter, for example.  So much for intellectual freedom.  Libraries where I expose child porn facilitation also block me on Twitter.  ALA librarians are told to block me, and over a hundred do.  Now if you have a sincere change of heart about facilitating child porn in public libraries, you do not attack and silence the child porn whistleblowers, yet here is Jamie LaRue, leader of ALA's supposed intellectual freedom office, doing just that:
And here's a graphic in case he hides/deletes that evidence as well:


  1. ALA actively trains librarians to thwart child pornography whistleblowers.  Evidence of this training was obtained by FOIA requests, some of which can be viewed here: Hatefest, and some of which can be seen in the brave/anonymous librarian letter published for the first time below.  The name "Hatefest" comes from my cowriter Kevin DuJan who, for reporting child pornography in a library, was repeatedly attacked for being gay, including at the training provided byALA where his being gay was used to attack Megan Fox who is another child porn whistleblower.  More FOIA information could have been obtained but ALA ordered librarians to violate their state records retention laws and state open government laws to instead destroy evidence of the training.  See: "Deny, Delete, Defend; American Library Association Orders Public Librarians To Destroy Public Documents To Preclude Public Disclosure of its 'Exposure'."  But it's too little, too late, and you can see in the FOIA responses ALA ordering librarians to do absolutely anything to "defend" child pornography viewers in public libraries, like destroying records, not recording records in the first place, misleading the media, or suing child porn whistleblowers for up to $500,000 for defamation.  And lo and behold, I was sued, along with Kevin DuJan and Megan Fox, for defamation.  See: "Bittman v Fox: SafeLibraries Dismissed Second Time."  So as you read through these FOIA responses, remember librarians were being trained that the child porn whistleblowers were self-interested evil out of town authors and prudes who must be stopped at all costs: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0ByZ7htC3sJifdWpYSWk0OFAwOG8?usp=sharing
And there is yet more evidence of how ALA facilitates child porn in public libraries.

Below is never before published information.  It is a letter received in response to the FOIA requests mentioned above.

Read about the homophobia ("Blondie kept pointing out that he is gay"), the hate ("you should not be hanging out all day with a gay guy"), the directions to destroy evidence from ALA.  Read how ALA controls what local libraries do to mislead local government, media, and citizens.  Read how he/she was ordered to destroy evidence, and he/she did as he/she was ordered.

Read the fear in this librarian's voice that he/she should dare speak out against the high and mighty ALA, facilitator of child porn.

For more on "Blondie," see: "2014-07-08 = OPPL Spokesperson Commits Disorderly Conduct/Breach of Peace According to Ofc. Schmidt."  I was sued for linking to this so please watch what ALA tried to have censored; "Blondie" is in green:



These are the tactics of people perpetuating a system of child pornography facilitation in public libraries nationwide.  This is what ALA does, by any means possible including homophobia and ordering librarians to defy the law by destroying documents.

And here it is in the words of one very frightened yet brave librarian, published below for the first time anywhere.  "I've never been to a workshop like this where afterwards it was a big thing to collect all the notes and pretend like it never happened."

To the librarians attending ALA's MidWinter meeting, wake up.  You may be joining the "Women's March" in Atlanta today seeking social justice, but you have your own injustice in your own backyard.  Homophobia.  Child pornography facilitation.  Sexual harassment of librarians caused by Internet porn viewers.  And so on.  All caused by ALA's own policies and actions.  It's time to clean it up.  And you can read it in the words of your own brave/anonymous peer, right now, just below. 

It's sad that a brave/anonymous librarian has to speak out about how ALA facilitates child pornography in public libraries nationwide.  It's worse that she can only speak to the child porn whistleblowers themselves because she fears ALA  Will anyone else speak up?.



Note: [Text in square brackets] means slight changes made to protect anonymity and to prevent retaliatory job action.  Paragraph spacing added.  SafeLibraries welcomes and protects anonymous input and is indeed the only source concerned about the Sexual Harassment of Librarians that's caused by unfiltered Internet pornography due to ALA policy and despite the law.

Key: Acorn = the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) that was exposed as a massive voter fraud by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles of Project Veritas; ALA = American Library Association; FOIA = Freedom of Information Act; ILA = Illinois Library Association; Office for Intellectual Freedom = ALA’s so-called Office for Intellectual Freedom; Orland Park = Orland Park, IL;

People: Blondie = Bridget Bittman, Public Information employee of the Orland Park Public Library; Bob from the ILA = Robert P. Doyle, Executive Director of the Illinois Library Association; Director = Mary Weimar, Library Director of the Orland Park Public Library; Hillary Clinton = Hillary Clinton; Kevin = Kevin DuJan, whistleblower of child pornography at the Orland Park Public Library; Michelle Obama = Michelle Obama; Ms. Fox = Megan Fox, whistleblower of child pornography at the Orland Park Public Library; Sarah Palin = Sarah Palin; the ALA Woman = Deborah Caldwell-Stone of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom; the President = Barack Hussein Obama

To: Megan Fox

Ms. Fox,

Our [library] received your recent FOIA request related to the crisis workshop held December 17, 2013. I attended this event but have been told not to respond to you so I am doing this [after work] from a new email account. My job would be threatened if it were known I was telling you this so please do not try to ID me.

My notes from the workshop were taken from me [in the past] when a big brouhaha happened about this. Not sure what it was all about but my boss said [he/she] got a call that you were looking for things related to the workshop and depending on FOIA and so my notes from the workshop were taken at that time and I was told not to ask for them back. They are gone now.

I was told recently that you had used FOIA to ask for them again and that you will be told that no notes exist but that is not true. They were taken but they did exist.

What I can remember about the workshop is this. There were five speakers. Two from Orland Park. Two others were women from the ALA and there was a man from the ILA. Not sure on their names. The two Orland employees were one older with brown hair and glasses and one blonde younger woman. Not sure on their names. But the Director was the older woman and I think the younger woman was the Asst. Director. Not sure. The older woman was more measured and careful when she spoke but the younger one got emotional at times.

You and a friend of yours whose name I don't recall were featured as examples of two people from the tea party who are attacking libraries around the country as part of some plot. The ALA woman said that this is like what happened to Acorn but now the tea party is going after libraries. They really seemed to believe this but [where] I was at few people bought into that.

The Director said that you and your friend were paid operatives of the tea party and that you came to Orland Park in October looking for something to invent a complaint about. They said you made up a story and lied about seeing someone doing inappropriate things. Then you started filing FOIA requests about the library after that excuse. Blondie said that you were paid by the tea party to do this.

Then the Director and Blondie went into a big production about what they had been doing to stop you. The Director said that any library encountering the tea party should involve the police because there are good relationships with the police in towns and villages. The Director said that she has a personal friendship with the Orland police chief and that this was "instrumental" in handling you. I remember how she said the word "instrumental" and she said that the police and the village officials were working with the library on preventing you and your friend from getting any traction. The Director also said that the police should scare you away and have you move on with your lives soon. Blondie said that the police are good tools to use against attackers like you because no one wants the police visiting them and the police will side with the library against patrons especially when they are not even from town.

A big deal was made about how you and your friend do not live in Orland and you are outsiders and paid operatives.

Then it got more personal and they showed slides from your website and I guess your friend's website. I remember a picture of a big shark and also a picture of bees. There was a picture of your friend with Sarah Palin and another picture of him with Hillary Clinton shown. And there were pictures of you that looked like they were head shots taken for promotional purposes. The Director and Blondie said that the two of you were setting up a scheme for money and that this was all a stunt to either get attention for you or to write a book.

Blondie said that Orland was focusing only on you and ignoring your friend because he is gay and it gets messy to attack a gay guy. But they have plenty of examples of how to combat a mom who complains. Treat her like Sarah Palin and tell everyone she is dumb and just makes babies was the gist of that. This is when that photo of Sarah Palin and your friend was shown I think. This was a big section of their talk and it went on for a while about how you were painted as a liar and how Blondie looked at everything you said or wrote to find any inconsistencies. The Director said that as soon as an inconsistency was found that the media were alerted to it as proof that you could not be trusted.

Blondie also said it was necessary to say that you did not have children with you in the library because that further made you a liar. She said that since you had no videos or photos of your kids in the library that it was their word against yours and people automatically believe the library over regular people.

The ALA later picked up that thread and said it was a useful tool to use because people just believe what a library says and we need to take advantage of that. Who would believe that the library was doing anything wrong?

The Director and Blondie then talked about how they were documenting everything that you and your friend did and taking it to the police until a charge could be filed at some point. Once you crossed a line they would be able to neutralize you and get an order from a judge keeping you away from the meetings.

The plan was to ignore anything you wrote in social media as much as possible but counter it using the local media which promised they would put forward the library's defense against your claims.

The strategy was to use the police to get you to stop coming to meetings and to make the community members not believe you by making you look like a liar.

[I or someone] asked in the question answer period if what you were saying is true and if there were reports of things happening in the library and the Director said that unfortunately you had gotten ahold of old reports and were lifting them out of context.

The Director said that no more incident reports would be written on matters in the library and that instead communication would be verbal to avoid FOIA.

The ALA picked this up too and advised everyone to stop writing incident reports and to instead do them as voicemail round robins to be deleted every day. This way staff stays informed but there is no paper trail later.

The takeaways and learning experiences from this matter involved how to neutralize attackers like you and your friend and how to make people not believe them and how to use allies in the community such as the police to make people like you go away.

This was not the kind of workshop a lot of us thought we were signing up for and it [was a waste of everyone’s time]. I was upset that I had to listen to all this. Most of it seemed crazy to me because no one would answer the question on whether or not what you had said happened had happened and if the incident reports were true. It was all just a meeting about how to chase you and your friend away.

There was also a big thing where Blondie got upset and had to justify why she decided to go on some radio show. I forget which one but the ALA woman said that you should never go on a live show unless you are well acquainted with the host and know the questions in advance. She said that Blondie made the mistake of allowing the hosts of the show to put words in her mouth and that damaged the library from a PR perspective. Blondie said she would never do a live interview again and would instead stick to putting out the press releases that the ALA would proof for her.

The ALA and ILA said to never send emails but to call on the phone and the Office for Intellectual Freedom would help. They gave us the number and I remember writing it down. I remember writing down the phone numbers for the Director and Blondie too and the number for Bob from the ILA. No one wanted anything in writing just phone calls. Nothing important on voicemail either just say to call back. It was a big deal to keep saying to keep everything verbal and off email and not in writing.

I am trying to think if there is anything else.

You asked about a presentation that was given and we never received a copy of it but the Director and Blondie had pictures of you in a presentation. It had about 30 slides. They had pictures of you from online and pictures of your friend.

Blondie kept pointing out that he is gay and also that he attacks the President and that he also told everyone years ago that Michelle Obama made a "whitey tape". I didn't know what she was talking about but she really seemed to have a personal hatred of your friend because Blondie got most upset when talking about him.

The Director got most upset when talking about you however. She called you "Ms Fox" and never said the name Megan. Blondie said Megan and also said your friend's first name, I remember. But the Director kept saying "Ms, Fox" and her tea party colleague. She said that you live in Mokena and your friend lives in Chicago and you both have no business being in their library.

I also remember that a jab was made at you for being a homeschooler and for being tea party members and that you should not be hanging out all day with a gay guy with your kids anyway.

Why aren't you and him at work? Blondie asked that. Why don't you have jobs? And Blondie made a crack about maybe you should be at home taking care of your kids and not harassing the library.

It was a very strange workshop. No one I know who went had a positive response to it.

Then afterwards it was pretty much forgotten until March when the brouhaha happened and my boss came racing around telling me that I had to get rid of everything from the workshop. That's when my notes were taken.

And now we are back at this again for some reason and I'm being asked if I got rid of all my notes because you are emailing about this again and everyone wants to make sure. My boss said [he/she] got a call about this to make sure. I don't know who the call was from. But I thought you should know because I've never been to a workshop like this where afterwards it was a big thing to collect all the notes and pretend like it never happened.

And I never was at a conference where people talked so personally about patrons like you and your friend. That has never happened before and I thought you should know.

I do not want any trouble so do not try to contact me or find me. This is the only contact I am going to have with you and I hope you understand and it is the only help I can give you.

—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2017/01/brave-librarian-speaks-out.html

On Twitter:
@ALALibrary @HillBuzz @jaslar +Megan Fox +Megan Fox @MeganFoxWriter @OIF