[Michlib-l] FOIA Requests

[Leslie Burke]

I think my concern is that they’re asking for so much personally identifiable information. I’d be less likely to resist if the data requested didn’t include personal information.
The data, for legitimate use, could be just as valuable with position names (e.g. Library Director, page, etc.) without including personal names linked to all the data. If someone really needed to follow up on an actual person, they could do that with minimal effort, but to aggregate personally identifiable information into who-knows-what kind of database or source they’re creating seems like a privacy invasion more than a “transparency” issue. Perhaps we, as library researchers, need to investigate who these groups are and what they do with this information.

My own opinions,
Leslie

Leslie D. Burke
Collection Development & Digital Integration Librarian, Library
Kalamazoo College
1200 Academy St
Kalamazoo, MI 49006
p 269.337.7144
f 269.337.7395
Leslie.Burke at kzoo.edu<mailto:Leslie.Burke at kzoo.edu>
More in Four. More in a Lifetime.
No one has to do everything, but everyone has to do something – What’s your Green Dot?
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leslieburke/<http://www.linkedin.com/in/leslieburke/>
Twitter: librarygal2go; K’s Library on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kalamazoocollegelibrary

From: michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org [mailto:michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org] On Behalf Of Nancy Studebaker-Barringer
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2017 7:37 AM
To: michlib-l <michlib-l at mcls.org>
Subject: [Michlib-l] FOIA Requests

We received the FOIA request from OpenTheBooks that has been much discussed. We complied and sent info as requested. We use Quickbooks and it to about 20 minutes for the bookkeeper to export a report and make a few changes as requested. We have about 25 employees.

I don't understand why there is so much resistance to just responding to the request. It seems some folks are spending more time trying to wiggle out of it or outsmart the folks making the request - than it would take to just comply and fulfill the information request.

I believe in the value of transparency in government- even when it's inconvenient or uncomfortable for me and mine.

NSB
--
Sent from Gmail Mobile
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20170421/eb0313c4/attachment.html>