SAU 3 Berlin – Public School Library RTK. Pushback.

Well, I did make a request for the card catalog for SAU3/Berlin, NH – a single entity that describes the books/other materials that are considered to be the “library collection” (“SAU 3 Berlin – Public School Library RTK“).

Sidenote: when dealing with a School District, always, ALWAYS first deal with the School Board members.  THEY are the Elected Representatives and THEY are responsible

However, even though it is a “public” record, it was clear that it wasn’t going to be given up.  WHY?  It’s just a list of books, right?

Yeah, not so much. Emphasis mine:

—— Original Message ——
From: “Julie King” <jking@sau3.org>
To: Skip@granitegrok.com
Cc: “Ann Nolin” <anolin@sau3.org>; “Marion Clancy” <mmoore@sau3.org>; “Jeanne Charest” <jcharest@sau3.org>; “Matthew Buteau” <mbuteau@sau3.org>; “Nathan Morin” <nmorin@sau3.org>; “Eamon Kelley” <ekelley@sau3.org>; “Julie King” <jking@sau3.org>
Sent: 10/5/2022 10:34:38 PM
Subject: Response to RTK request

Skip,

In response to your demand under the Right to Know Law, the catalog of the collections in both school’s main libraries are open for the public to browse on our website using the following:

Library / Homepage (sau3.org)  select which library then “Destiny Catalog.”

We do not catalog or maintain logs of classroom collections.

Julie King
Superintendent

SAU#3 – Berlin Public Schools
District Office
183 Hillside Ave., Berlin, NH 03570
Phone: (603) 752-6500 ext.1108 | Fax: (603) 752-2528
jking@sau3.org | www.sau3.org

Confidentiality Notice:  This message is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed, and may contain confidential information.  If you are not that person, any use of this message is prohibited.  We request that you notify us by reply that you have received this message in error, and then delete all copies of this message including any contained in your reply.  Thank you

Sidenote: Methinks someone ought to let Superintendent King know that ALL governmental emails are public records. Sorry, if confidential information is to be sent, use the US Postal Service or FedEx. At anytime, her email can also be RTK’d and for any reason or purpose that the person issuing the RTK can think up. That aside…

Well, my RTK was NOT a request of “How do I look up a book if that’s all I wanted?”.  No, the object of the RTK was the “card catalog” – the listing. Not the books in it and it is clear that ANY well run library system possesses the ability to immediately display/list/print/”save off to a file” that entity at any point in time. EVERY library system has that capability – it MUST in order to have accountability especially for inventory purposes (and a myriad of other reasons as well).

So, no, that answer was insufficient and I let Superintendent King know it (again, any emphasis is mine):

From: Skip <Skip@granitegrok.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 7, 2022 at 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: Response to RTK request
To: Julie King <jking@sau3.org>
Cc: Ann Nolin <anolin@sau3.org>, Marion Clancy <mmoore@sau3.org>, Jeanne Charest <jcharest@sau3.org>, Matthew Buteau <mbuteau@sau3.org>, Nathan Morin <nmorin@sau3.org>, Eamon Kelley <ekelley@sau3.org>

Good afternoon,

An RSA 91A demand is looking for the respondent to supply Responsive Records – in this case, the records contained in your District’s school library card catalogs. It is insufficient to provide mere links and a “look it up yourself” response. Thus, I consider this a non-response under the auspices of RSA91A to provide that which the Law demands. After all, SAU79, SAU73, SAU88, and others have already properly followed the Law’s requirements, accomplished the requested and proper action, and provided EXCEL spreadsheets with the information demanded in the Right To Know.

To recap:
* 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

I would refer you to the original document I sent to the Board. It is the lawful expectation that the District will follow suit.

Best regards,

-Skip

Skip Murphy
Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com | 603-630-6644 Dominating the political Bandwidth in New Hampshire

Again, a card catalog is a single datum – a list. It doesn’t require a clerk, or a group of clerks, running around a school building looking at all of the spines of books to gather or write down bibliographic information.  In fact, that is impermissible under RSA 91-A, NH’s Right To Know law:

91-A:4 Minutes and Records Available for Public Inspection. –

VII. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to require a public body or agency to compile, cross-reference, or assemble information into a form in which it is not already kept or reported by that body or agency.

A Library’s card catalog / collection listing can be had by the push of a button. Period.  The database system is already set up to reference all that is necessary.

Sadly, that’s not what I got in return from Superintendent King.  Instead (emphasis mine) – it was from a lawyer:

—— Original Message ——
From: “Atty. Barbara Loughman” <loughman@soulefirm.com>
To: “skip@granitegrok.com” <skip@granitegrok.com>
Cc: “Julie King” <jking@sau3.org>; “Karen Lancaster” <karen@soulefirm.com>
Sent: 10/11/2022 10:44:54 AM
Subject: Berlin PS/RTK/Gr.Gr.10.2.22req.

Dear Mr. Murphy,

I represent SAU #3, Berlin Public Schools and am responding to your October 2 RTK request and subsequent correspondence printed below. It will take me a couple of days to review the matter. I will get back to you by the end of the week.

Thank you for your consideration.

Barbara F. Loughman
Soule Leslie Kidder
PO Box 908
Wolfeboro, NH 03894
603-569-8044

What is with a District that has to consult with a lawyer about a public document that even kids can access?  But, I decided to “play nice” (aka the movie “Roadhouse“‘s definition) – I offered to assist the Library Staff generate the report necessary to fulfill the RTK.  After all, EVERY Library system has such a query file (unless someone sabotages it):

—— Original Message ——
From: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To: “Atty. Barbara Loughman” <loughman@soulefirm.com>
Cc: “Julie King” <jking@sau3.org>; “Karen Lancaster” <karen@soulefirm.com>
Sent: 10/11/2022 2:11:41 PM
Subject: Re: Berlin PS/RTK/Gr.Gr.10.2.22req.

Good afternoon!

Thanks for letting me know that you are evaluating my RSA 91A demand.

It’s not clear that there is any controversy surrounding it – nothing confidential, no privileged conversations, and certainly nothing of a personnel matter. It’s just a list of books that has been requested.

I’m quite sure that your Library Information System (as I don’t know of a single District in the State that continues to use a physical card catalog system based on paper cards anymore) is capable in fulfilling this request. Most likely, once the proper submenu navigation has been accomplished, a simple button press should be sufficient. Having an M.S. in computer science and 40 years in the industry, if the SAU staff librarians are unable to create a simple EXCEL spreadsheet file with the demanded data points in your SQL database system, I can talk them through it. It’s a trivial query.

Can you give me their contact information so as to ask prelim questions as to how they might need my assistance? As a former Principal Consultant, I’m always happy to help people!

Kindest regards,

-Skip

I have the instructions – I could have mailed it to them in a step by step basis.  But then, again, lawyers. However, there’s a hook at the end of this story that will be amusing.

To Be Continued…