Showing posts with label NJStateLibrary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NJStateLibrary. Show all posts

Sunday, May 1, 2016

OPRA Request for Minutes, Forms, and Training

Dear Westfield Memorial Library Board of Directors (via Director Philip Israel):

OPRA Request:

This is a request for public records made under common law and the Open Public Records Act [OPRA] seeking the following information:

1)  Minutes of the 28 April 2016 Board of Trustees Meeting.

In short, please provide the minutes from the immediate past board meeting.

2)  Records of planning to file and filing forms entitled, “Request and Authorization for Records Disposal.”  Include related correspondence, notes, telephonic recordings, etc.  Here is an example blank form: http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/revenue/rms/pdf/DisposalForm11.pdf Include responses from the State of New Jersey.

In short, please provide the documents evidencing permission from the State of New Jersey to dispose of various public records, for example, permission to destroy an audio recording of the 28 May 2015 executive session.

3)  Records of planning to file and online filing of forms filed with Artemis (Records Retention and Disposition Management System): http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/revenue/rms/artemis.shtml  Include related correspondence, notes, telephonic recordings, etc.  Include responses from the State of New Jersey.

In short, please provide the online evidence showing permission from the State of New Jersey to dispose of various public records, for example, permission to destroy an audio recording of the 28 May 2015 executive session.

4)  Records of all conferences and all training provided over the past two years for librarians, library employees, library board trustees, and the library director where that conference/training was provided directly or indirectly by the American Library Association, the New Jersey Library Association, the New Jersey State Library, or other library conference/training providers, including correspondence/email, notes taken in handwriting or electronically by individuals, telephonic recordings, handouts, conference/training manuals, online training sources, permission slips, travel accommodations paid, fees and costs paid, airfare, car reimbursements, hotel stays, conference/training admission, meals, and other expenses involved in attending the conferences, etc.  Include presentations or reports written by librarians, library employees, library board trustees, and the library director after returning from the conferences/trainings where they recorded or shared their learnings at the conferences/trainings.  Exclude any conferences/training devoted solely to the workings of various machinery or software within the library, unless that conference/training includes legal aspects of software usage.  For example, training on how to use Internet filters may be excluded unless that training includes legal aspects pertaining to the use of Internet filters.

In short, please provide the who, what, when, where, subject matter, and complete training provided and notes taken of all training provided to librarians, library employees, library board trustees, and the library director by several leading library conference/training sources.  Include reports written by attendees to present to others that summarize what was learned.


Detailed Reasoning for OPRA Request:

Now I will go into detailed reasoning for this request.  

As you know an audio recording was made of the 28 May 2015 executive session meeting by the library board.  It was converted to minutes that were provided to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office [UCPO].  The next day I was informed by UCPO that, based on the minutes, no Open Public Meetings Act violation occurred.  Having previously told UCPO that a recording was made, I asked it to reconsider and to listen to the recording instead of just considering the minutes.  UCPO refused, responding only that it could not do that as the library board had destroyed the tape.

At the 28 April 2016 library board meeting I confirmed with the library that the UCPO claim that the recording was destroyed was accurate.

New Jersey law regarding the destruction of public records comprises audio recordings of executive sessions made by municipal bodies.  The law requires that audio recordings may not be destroyed until “80 days or until either summary or verbatim transcript have been approved as minutes, whichever is longer.”  Further, “to legally dispose of records, agencies must fill out and submit a Request and Authorization for Records Disposal form. County and local officials may submit requests on-line.”  Hyperlinks omitted.

Therefore, I am seeking evidence that such written or online forms were completed in compliance with the law.  I am seeking evidence that the State of New Jersey replied to such completed forms.

I am also seeking evidence of any training provided to librarians, library employees, library board trustees, and the library director by major library training providers at conferences or at dedicated trainings.  Said training would reveal if anyone received training on New Jersey’s records retention policies or such policies in general.  I am seeking all training information, not just training information pertaining only to the records retention policies, but I’m not interested in training solely about machinery or software usage, unless such training contains information about the legal usage of Internet filters.

Further, there is a book that makes clear library record retention is a serious matter not to be taken lightly by library boards and library directors and warning that violations are serious violations of state laws.  Since it is evident the library community has been aware of the seriousness of library record retention policies for decades since the book was published, there can be no legitimate excuse for not following state record retention laws.

I provide this detailed reasoning for the requested public records to make it clear the records I seek are public records, are legally required, are available to the public upon request, this request is not made frivolously or with any self-interest, and there is the potential for uncovering serious illegality if records were destroyed in violation of the law, particularly if that illegality was performed in furtherance of a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act and an effort to cover up such a violation.


Legal Guideposts If Needed:

There should be no need to seek legal counsel for compliance with this OPRA request.  I am hoping to get the requested public records without significant cost to the municipality and without your having to sink time and taxpayer money into seeking permission from an attorney, a costly intermediary that is not needed for this OPRA request.  Yes, redact out home phone numbers, home addresses, account numbers, personal email addresses if not used for library business, etc.  I am only seeking public information,  It is easy to redact or block any personal portions of such records.  It is a simple matter to look in various files and produce the simple information I request under the law.  It is public information.  If an insistence is made on draining taxpayer resources by engaging the services of an attorney to provide the public with public documents under the law that the library can provide without legal intervention, a step that is superfluous to obtaining the requested public records, then the following legal guideposts might help minimize the damage by providing a head start:

Information About the OPRA Requester and the OPRA Request:

I am a member of the news media and I will be reporting on the materials produced in response to this records request as part of my investigative reporting on public libraries locally and nationwide.  I have already published my first report on the Westfield Memorial Library: “Library Approves Unfiltered Computers in Children's Section” (http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2015/11/wml.html ).  For about fifteen years I regularly publish about library crimes including violations of open government laws.  I may make public any OPRA response as it may be in the public interest, both locally and nationally.  Therefore, please waive any fees that might otherwise pertain to OPRA requests.

I request the OPRA response be in electronic format and emailed directly or via attachment to me ( SafeLibraries@gmail.com ). 

To make things really easy, here is the OPRA statute:  http://www.state.nj.us/grc/act.html

OPRA requires a response time of seven business days.  If access to the records I am requesting will take longer, please contact me with information about when I might expect copies.

If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific exemption alleged to justify the refusal to release the public records and notify me of the appeal procedures available to me under the law.  Also, please provide all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material.


Suggestion/Offer:

I am a member of the American Library Association.  I recently became a member of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government ( http://njfog.org ).  NJFOG provides training that has significantly enhanced my knowledge of open government rights.  Further, I am now a part of community of open government advocates who are now watching what I’m doing to expose open government violations and defend open government rights.  I highly suggest people at Westfield Memorial Library join NJFOG as it will help them learn about open government rights and regulations.  

Lastly, I have ordered a copy of the Shirley A. Wiegand book on library records.  I am hereby offering to lend it to anyone at the library, including library counsel.  It may guide the library board to stop the deleting of public records such as Internet browser histories that may help police solve crimes, including child p0rn0graphy viewing, until coming into compliance with New Jersey law.

Thank you for your consideration.

Dan Kleinman, Library Watchdog

SafeLibraries
1 May 2016

CC:  Professor Shirley A. Wiegand
        NJ Foundation for Open Government


URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2016/05/opra-request.html

On Twitter:  @ALALibrary @NewJerseyFOG @WMLNJ

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Location: Westfield, NJ 07090, USA

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

How State Library Associations Endanger Children; NJ Libraries and You: Not Perfect Together

Children throughout New Jersey are endangered by the New Jersey Library Association [NJLA] and the New Jersey State Library [NJSL].  NJSL provides training for all members of library boards of trustees.  NJLA delivers significant portions of that NJSL training.  NJLA teaches that NJ libraries are open public fora where anything goes so they may not block pornography as that would violate First Amendment freedoms.  That is 100% opposite of the law.  As a result, some boards of trustees oppose filtering out porn, thereby harming children statewide, let alone leaving librarians exposed to sexual harassment and municipalities exposed to such lawsuits.  NJ libraries and you: Not perfect together.

The New Jersey State Library history is interesting:

The New Jersey State Library dates its official inception to 1796 when, for the first time, the Legislature assigned responsibility for its collection of books to an individual, the Clerk of the House.  But the origin of the State Library is actually much earlier.  It began as a collection of books maintained by the New Jersey Assembly when New Jersey was an English colony.  Over time this collection of books grew until it became a reference collection used by members of both houses of the legislature. Eventually New Jersey became a state and the collection came to be called the State's library.   
Source: "The Origins and Early Years of the New Jersey State Library," by John Shaw, New Jersey State Library, 10 September 2010.
NJSL, a state entity since colonial times, now provides training to all NJ library trustees, likely using NJ tax revenue.  Here's one announcement:
That training includes misinformation about public library law that misleads trustees into acting against the interests of their own patrons and library employees.  Specifically, the training includes that public libraries are public fora for ideas.  For example, here is NJSL-provided training from NJLA Executive Director Pat Tumulty:



Source:  "New Jersey Public Libraries:  A Manual for Trustees, Revised Edition," NJ State Library, NJ State Library, October 2005.  I confirmed this training is current as shown above to the present date.

The training is now facilitated by the American Library Association [ALA] for NJSL, still using Pat Tumulty's false legal advice:
The problem is, the US Supreme Court shows what the NJSL is teaching to library trustees and what the ALA is facilitating is not true.  Rather, it is legally false.  And it's the key to any library's excuse for allowing porn despite the law, despite community standards, and despite common sense.  Combine that with people thinking librarians must know the law and it's easy to understand why communities are tricked into allowing porn in their libraries.  Library trustees are trained in something the opposite of the law.

It is not true that a "[p]ublic library is a public forum for ideas," as shown in the NJSL/NJLA/ALA training.  That is false.  The US Supreme Court found the exact opposite.  The Court specifically addressed that issue and decided one way, and the NJSL/NJLA/ALA is intentionally teaching the opposite.  We are all here discussing porn in public libraries because they intentionally teach the opposite of the law.

The US Supreme Court said, "Internet access in public libraries is neither a 'traditional' nor a 'designated' public forum."  "Internet terminals are not acquired by a library in order to create a public forum for Web publishers to express themselves."  See United States v. American Library Association, 539 US 194 (2003).  In other words, a public library is NOT a public forum for ideas—and pornography is not "ideas" anyway.

And here's something ALA/NJSL/NJLA does not teach.  US v. ALA held, "The interest in protecting young library users from material inappropriate for minors is legitimate, and even compelling, as all Members of the Court appear to agree."  But they don't, so they don't teach that.

The key here is that if you claim despite the law that a public library is an open public forum where anything goes, then you may not block pornography since that is "constitutionally protected material" and anything goes.

So NJSL is teaching something completely the opposite of the law, and using our tax money to do it.  That thereby empowers library trustees to think pornography may not be blocked from public libraries.  Essentially, NJSL misleads library trustees into thinking the opposite of the law, then those library trustees mislead your community into allowing porn on computers in your public libraries.

NJSL accomplishes this by using Pat Tumulty, the Executive Director of the NJLA, to teach that false lesson shown above.  Pat Tumulty essentially says NJ libraries must carry porn.  Got that?  Let me show you a news broadcast about a child allegedly viewing porn in the Roxbury Public Library in Morris County, NJ.  You will see me and Pat Tumulty.  You'll also hear about library attorney Ann Grossi, but I'll get to her later.  For now, watch Pat Tumulty approve pornography in NJ public libraries, and remember, she's teaching library trustees for the NJSL and the ALA:

As Walt Kane said: "Pat Tumulty is the Executive Director of the New Jersey Library Association.  She says that towns and libraries simply cannot censor what people watch.  [Pat Tumulty:] 'It is a public place and I think people have to recognize that again, public dollars don't necessarily mean I can proscribe what you see and you can proscribe what I see.'"  Compare that to the training she provides for the NJSL saying, "Public library is a public forum for ideas."  Here she says, "It is a public place and I think people have to recognize that...."  It's essentially the same thing, only you can see her saying it in the context of enabling porn in NJ's public libraries.

And I responded to her publicly when a local radio host discussed the Roxbury matter.  Let's go back in time to hear what I said:
  • "The Joe Crummey Show," Joe Crummey, WABC 770AM, 27 June 2011.  [The full excerpt is 47:59-54:11 & 56:01-1:03:31.  I appear at 56:48-58:21.  Note frequent/popular caller "Greg from Chatham" calls Pat Tumulty a "liberal, progressive, socialist."]

That's Pat Tumulty, the Executive Director of NJLA, using her position to promote her law-defying ideas that result in more porn harming more people in our communities.  She even advises the NJ Office of Legislative Services on porn in NJ public libraries:
Pat T. reported that she had a call from the Office of Legislative Services regarding pornography in public libraries as a result of the News 12 NJ story involving a complaint by a patron that her child saw “pornography” at a local library.  Eileen P. has done some research and found that 25 states have legislation addressing access to content in libraries in some way. Pat commented that is a complicated issue, made especially difficult when the term “pornography” is used to frame the debate. (Pat prefers the term “adult content”.  Eileen P. suggested that Public Policy discuss the issue at an upcoming meeting.  The board agreed.  

And that's NJSL using our tax dollars to push porn in our communities.

Now let's look at Ann Grossi.  She's the library attorney in Roxbury and also Montville.  How does she fit into the picture?

Ann Grossi uses her position as library attorney to ensure Roxbury and Montville citizens comply with Pat Tumulty's law-defying diktat as promulgated by NJSL/ALA.  Both those communities asked me to assist them in removing porn from their public libraries.  I did, but in the end, they believed they were forced to listen to the attorney's advice because they paid for it.  And they paid for it alright.  Their community libraries remain infected with pornography.


Remember in the video when Ann Grossi was quoted as saying, "if the library attempts to restrict access, regardless of how offensive, it would be a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States"?  Well that's false.  The US v. ALA case decided the exact opposite, in the very first sentence of the case so you can't miss it: "public libraries' use of Internet filtering software does not violate their patrons' First Amendment rights...."  It's the exact opposite.  And Roxbury and Montville are following the exact opposite of the law.

Remember how she said she was reviewing the policy after it was challenged?  Remember how Walt Kane asked if I was satisfied with that?  I said, "well, if she's the one who's doing the review, then it won't make a difference."  And indeed, after the review, the policy is essentially the same and the library still allows porn despite the law.

Ann Grossi
I have filed an ethics complaint against Ann Grossi and the case is under review so I am not at liberty to discuss the details, but here is my initial filing:


What about NJ schools?  Any problems there?  Well, yes.  Get this.  The Rancocas Valley Regional High School had a book featuring two people having anal sex.  When an effort was made to review the book for compliance with school book selection policy, the school librarian went over the head of her principle and jumped straight up to the American Library Association.  ALA brought all guns to bear on the school, something it does in community after community nationwide.  Fortunately, this community did not buckle and the book was removed from the school:

Listen to this, because of my involvement in that matter, I attended an NJLA conference to hear the book's author speak about its having been "censored."  Coincidentally, the author had just been featured by the ALA on its annual list of the top ten most challenged books.  At the end of her talk I asked a softball question, how did she feel about being on the ALA's new list.  Well, the author gushed with enthusiasm and excitement as she explained how excited she was.  She said she asked the ALA how her book got to be in the top ten list.  She said the ALA responded that other books had in fact been challenged more than hers, but because hers dealt with homosexuality and was actually removed, ALA decided to push the book higher up the list.  In other words, the ALA faked the list!  And the author admitted essentially that in response to a question I asked.  And I recorded her response and placed it on my blog for all to hear.  No wonder the ALA lists me as its top opponent!  Have a listen:

The question is, given the ALA influence in our public schools and our public libraries, given NJSL and Pat Tumulty and Ann Grossi are all marching to the same porn-pushing tune, who is playing that tune?  It's the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union whose Illinois state board member joined the ALA and changed forever how librarians approached children:

That was over four decades ago but librarians are still talking about it to this very day:
  • "Sunday Meditation: Are We Still Endowed by Our Creator with Certain Unalienable Rights?," by Will Manley, Will Unwound, 11 August 2013, No.823, emphasis added:
    What I found was that up until the mid 1960s there was a clear consensus that one of the main objectives of the children's department was to provide wholesome materials that would build "character."  This goal was clearly rooted in the Judeo Christian principles upon which America was founded.  That all changed in the turmoil of the 60s when "intellectual freedom" now became the value the library profession was rooted upon.  My research revealed that with each passing decade the profession's definition of intellectual freedom became more and more of an "anything goes" proposition.

    By the turn of the century, librarians were even vehemently espousing their right to provide pornography on the internet to children.  At that time I was a lone wolf speaking out in favor of children's room filters.  I have been universally condemned in the profession for taking that position.

    I wonder if there are any limits to library intellectual freedom in libraries today.  Clearly the idea of the library as a place to build character by providing wholesome materials to children would be laughed at today.  But on the other extreme are there any boundaries to intellectual freedom in libraries?  Is the whole notion of morality obsolete and are our public institutions no longer rooted in the same religious principles that can be found in the Declaration of Independence?

Will Manley.  He's the same gent who revealed that "the library profession is the only profession in the world that wants children to have access to pornography":

But what is the ALA to which key people in NJ communities are so in thrall that entire communities are misled into thinking they must allow porn?


ALA allows itself to be used as the pretty face to cover up George Soros's getting access to American school children and his using American libraries as distribution points for his propaganda:

ALA even brags what it can do with Soros's Open Society Institute millions given there are more libraries than there are McDonald's Restaurants (and one of its speakers, Cory Doctorow, advises children to bypass parental Internet filters, jailbreak electronic locks on devices, etc., and says (14:35) "and frankly, you can't say bad things about a librarian without sounding like some kind of a jerk, so you folks are really well positioned to carry this banner"):

ALA, supposedly opposed to the "censorship" of keeping children from inappropriate material, itself uses censorship to promote radical Islam.  You have to read these to see how misguided is the American Library Association and keep it in mind when ALA comes to your town to promote its worldview about censorship:

ALA even works underhandedly in a number of ways, all with the intention of misleading local communities into thinking what the ALA wants them to think, much like the false training for the library trustees.  That way communities make decisions they think are their own but are really manufactured by the ALA; where the ALA has no power to force a community to do anything, if it can get the people to think the way the ALA thinks, the community will do what the ALA wants.  For example:
Letter from anti-filtering advocate to library director about $1,000 grant from ALA.
That sounds pretty underhanded to me.  But what else has ALA done that our leading librarian at NJLA, a library attorney running for Morris County Clerk, and our tax-support NJSL finds so alluring that they need to mislead people into following:
That's the ALA.  That's what NJSL, NJLA, and a politically-active library attorney push?  The underhanded ALA that anonymously edits Wikipedia, outs marital infidelities of baseball players, and slips walking around money quietly to its acolytes.  The ALA that misleads a third of American communities and is one of the nation's leading porn purveyors and contributors to the sexual exploitation of women.  One begins to understand why communities need to be misled into following ALA diktat.  One sees why outright lying is needed to mislead people into doing what the ALA/NJLA wants.

In reality, you can stop this.  You are now armed with information to counter the misinformation you will hear from the pro-porn, anti-filtering advocates.  You now see this is a battle with an underhanded organization that will stop at nothing to achieve its goals.  You now see how key people in key positions can mislead people by the hundreds, like with NJSL teaching all library trustees that libraries are open public fora where anything goes and porn may not be blocked.

It is up to you to go back to your communities and keep your newly trained ears open for people trying to push themselves on your children and your community.  As soon as you see it, find out what's going on.  If you determine a response is needed, get educated then take action.  For example, here's a protest by a Florida public school teacher who walked her third grade class across the street for a public library tour only to have her kids see xxx porn, and the library refused to stop it:

Basically, the key is to educate people about the issues so they can make informed decisions for themselves.  Show exactly where the pro-porn, anti-filtering advocates are misleading, and back up your statements with reliable sources, like the US Supreme Court, the author of the Children's Internet Protection Act, even your local library law.

As to NJSL using our taxpayer money to teach all library trustees something that's legally false so as to mislead them into excusing porn on the computers in our public libraries, that is something about which we should educate Governor Christie.  In a nutshell, NJSL teaches that libraries are open public places where anything goes, including Internet porn, but that has been shown to be legally false by the US Supreme Court that held that libraries are not and that governments may block out porn as they have since libraries started.  As a result, the very people in key positions to control local libraries have been indoctrinated to act against the law in a manner that seriously harms communities.  Is this insidious or what?

As to the ALA teaching all library trustees library law it knows to be false, that's just another in a long line of reasons why it's time to stop thinking of ALA as authoritative on libraries and time to start restoring local control to our local libraries.



Note:  The above is approximately the text of a speech given to a New Jersey audience, however, library associations nationwide likely mislead similarly, particularly because ALA sets the tone.


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Sunday, March 22, 2009

NJ Libraries Oppose the ALA: "Libraries are a Safe Haven for Youth" and a "Safe Learning Environment"

New Jersey libraries oppose the American Library Association [ALA] on the issue of safe libraries. The NJ State Library has an advertising campaign to attract attention to NJ libraries. Here is a sign I saw on the Garden State Parkway:


The sign says, "NJ Libraries Transform Lives; Tell us your story; www.tellusyourstory.org." Go to that site to see:

LIBRARIES ARE A SAFE HAVEN FOR YOUTH

Filomena Pereira hopes that all the students at her town’s high school will be able to take advantage of the educational resources provided by their library.

FULL STORY HERE

LIBRARIES ARE A NON-THREATENING SAFE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

This New Jersey family shares their love of the library.

FULL STORY HERE

So the NJ State Library is promoting NJ's safe libraries, among other things.

Compare that to the ALA's view of safe libraries:
So NJ promotes safe libraries and the ALA promotes the opposite, or so it appears. I think NJ libraries oppose the ALA on the issue of safe libraries. At least I hope they do.

What do you think?

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