Well, the elections are over, mostly (recounts here in NH this week and this bastardization of Election Day by the Democrats just seems interminable with “oh, another box of mailed-in ballots has just been “found”), so it is time to get back to work, mostly.
Certainly, a lot of catching up to do. One of them is to return to doing Right To Know demands for Public School District library card catalogs. One of them was up in Berlin, SAU 3 and I sent them my RSA 91-A demand back a while ago in early October:
—— Original Message ——
From: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To: anolin@sau3.org; mbuteau@sau3.org; jcharest@sau3.org; ekelley@sau3.org; nmorin@sau3.org
Sent: 10/2/2022 11:22:44 AM
Subject: RSA 91A Right To Know demand – the SAU 3 Library Card CatalogGood morning,
Please find attached to this email my Right To Know concerning the District’s card catalog for its libraries. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me
I have reproduced this RSA 91A demand below.
Thank you for your lawful response.
-Skip
Skip Murphy
Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com
Now, this was a bit of a fun one to do when it was all said and done but here’s the Right To Know itself (and yes, you’ll be seeing a bunch of these going forward):
Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the below enumerated governmental records. Otherwise, if this cannot be fulfilled within that mandated window per RSA 91-A, please advise when the Responsive Records will be made available.
This request is for the Berlin/SAU 3 School District library “card catalog”. This is for any and all books located in the following:
- District-wide “main” library
- Each school within the District’s “main” library
- If a school has multiple “main” libraries (such as Brockton High, Brockton, MA)
- All classrooms with cataloged books that are tracked by the District.
The information for each Responsive Record shall include:
- Name of the book
- Name of the Author(s)
- Content Summary
- ISBN identification (or other such designated ID)
- Name of the School
- If a School has multiple libraries, a designation of which library is being referenced (in the case of Brockton High, the five libraries: Red, Azure/Blue, Green, Yellow, and the Science libraries)
- Name/designation of the Classroom within a School
Per RSA 91-A:4 IV(c) If you deny any portion of this request, please cite the specific exemption used to justify the denial to make each record, or part thereof, unavailable for inspection along with a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the information withheld.
As you are aware, in 2016, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a governmental body in possession of records is required to produce them in electronic media using standard common file formats: Green v. SAU #55, 168 N.H. 796, 801 (2016). Unless there is some reason that it is not reasonably practical to produce such, explain why it is not practical to comply.
Please also note, per RSA 91-A:4 III, III-a, and III-b, you are required to maintain the safety and accessibility of such responsive records. This also includes such responsive records (e.g., emails) which may have been deleted from respective Inboxes but are still available on the applicable email server or in your / email host backup system(s).
Please let me know when these records will be sent to me for inspection. You may email the responsive records to me at Skip@GraniteGrok.com. If the volume turns out to be substantial, I have already set up a Dropbox folder to use in uploading those responsive records.
Thank you for your lawful attention to this matter.
Sincerely,