Orland Park, IL. (ECWd) –
The Orland Park Public Library is continuing to withhold public records from Freedom Of Information Act requester, even after a $55,000 settlement against them in previous FOIA lawsuits.
This time, a request was made for emails sent by OPPL employee Jason Rock, the Virtual Services Manager that “rules all things electronic with an iron fist and the will of a tyrant“… The OPPL said no.
Photos/screenshots are from Jason Rock’s facebook and.or linkedin publicly view-able accounts.
So the library thinks it can get away with not providing emails from its virtual services manager – AND Mr. Rock, or someone that knows him, decided to complain to facebook about the above pictures being used in an article, written by Megan Fox, about him claiming it violated their policies.
14 Comments
IRONY
Posted at 02:20h, 22 SeptemberDoes anyone see the irony in this? It’s pretty remarkable. So, all of these ALA employees are trying to have Megan Fox’s Facebook page censored because they do not like information on it. They do not like that Ms. Fox and Mr. Dujan are reporting on bad things that people who work in libraries have been doing. So, the library employees are getting together to have them censored. Not all information appears to be equal. If the ALA does not like the information or it is unflattering to its members, it appears the ALA is then in favor of censorship. This could mushroom into a national news story because it seems that ALA members are being caught red-handed as censors. The biggest irony is that this is Banned Book Month or whatever, and here the ALA is trying to have Megan Fox banned and silenced.
blount
Posted at 07:45h, 22 SeptemberMegan and Kevin would love it to gain national attention. Who are these ALA employees you are referring to? Sounds a bit Joe McCarthy-ish. Can they prove all these ALA employees are coluding against them? Or is it just more of the victim narrative Megan and Kevin want to portray. The simple fact despite all the brouhaha, they lost on the issue of filters. Turning their campaign onto a campaign for good governance is truly not a bad thing. But it is thinly disguised. Calling into questions actions of the board on spending is a good thing. But launching scerolous attacks on library employees because you have nothing to add to your argument soon becomes a pattern of internet bullying on public servants that probably have little or no influence over major library policies. If Ms Cuci or Mr.Rock had taken photos from Ms Fox’s or Mr. Dujan’websites and distorted them and published them under fair use and made weird accusations against them I could certainly see a reason for them to complain. However that is not the case. Is it ALA censorship? I doubt it. But everytime Megan and Kevin ramp up their game and attack people without any substantial purpose other than to justify their loss over the issue of internet filters less people will support them or their cause.
PERSPECTiVE
Posted at 20:05h, 22 SeptemberIs it accurate to say that Megan and Kevin “lost” on filters? I don’t think so. What Kevin and Megan have accomplished is very remarkable. First, they forced the OPPL to stop refusing to allow parents to use computers with children. Next, they forced the OPPL to stop handing out slips of paper for Internet usage and required the OPPL to start checking IDs and limited computer time (this did a lot to chase away the creeps who were clogging up that area). The OPPL was then forced to write a policy forbidden watching pornography in the library, which the OPPL never did before. The OPPL also stated it would start calling the police when porn was viewed and when illegal things were being accessed or sexual activity was happening in the library. That was a big change from the OPPL’s old policy of looking the other way and not calling the police. About a dozen OPPL computers were removed from the computer area in 2014. These were the ones that were being used for masturbation. The screens on the remaining computers were turned to face the Help Desk in September 2014. That was a big fight that Megan and Kevin won, to force the OPPL to make it much harder for anyone to be hiding what they were doing or masturbating in the computer area. The OPPL also for the first time had staff start patrolling the area instead of looking the other way. All of the computer were moved a further distance from stacks of books that teens needed for history reports to create a greater distance between the adults on computers and the teens needing those books. The OPPL has not had another masturbation or sexual incident since these changes were made. It is not accurate to say that Megan and Kevin “lost” when their goal was to clean up that computer area and make sure that men were no longer allowed to sit there all day, masturbate, and watch porn on computers anonymously. They succeeded in cleaning that place up. Nice try, though, blount.
blount
Posted at 21:28h, 23 SeptemberYour points are well taken. However I believe the same could have been done without employing the ugly tactics to get there. Why did she need to make a video of Bridget Bittman, insinuate she had a weapon in her hand and publish it on the internet? What has Ms Cuci done to be referred to as a Monster? Megan’s case study said Cuci sent an employee to an althiemers program where Megan (or Dujan) baselessly claimed oPPL employees were caring for nursing home patients so staff could go on break. Some of the things said and done by Megan or on here behalf have been so off the wall as to dilute whatever has been accomplished. And it keeps getting uglier.
Blount
Posted at 18:04h, 21 SeptemberWhat exactly do the pair from the Fan Page want? Don’t FOIAs have to be a little more specific than asking for ALL of a person’s emails?
So this guy made a bold statement on his LinkedIn page about electronics. What does that have to do with anything he is doing as it relates to his job at the OPPL? Or is it just rash speculation on their part that something unspecific is happening.
The pair now seems to want to get involved in personnel issues. They call out a manager at the OPPL as a “monster” because she disciplined an unhappy and uncooperative employee. Have Megan and Kevin ever worked for a company where a manager disciplines employees for not wanting to do his or her job the way the manager wants the job done? It happens more often than you think and a manager has to have the flexibility to do so.
Do Megan and Kevin plan to involve themselves in personnel decisions at the library? What basis do either have to make these kind of judgments? If the Library was settling high dollar lawsuits by unhappy employees, we’d know that by now. But try as they may to unseat Mary Weimer, it’s not going to happen this way and the two of them just end up looking rather foolish. Have they no sense of shame?
Mitch
Posted at 17:02h, 21 SeptemberYou haven’t learned from stealing people’s copyrighted material.
jmkraft
Posted at 17:15h, 21 SeptemberGood try. It was in the public domain, I am exercising “Fair Use” rights.
From Stanford:
“fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement.” – See more at: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/#sthash.LfbBdSgq.dpuf
Mitch
Posted at 17:22h, 21 SeptemberYou didn’t do any of that.
Nic Cat
Posted at 19:01h, 21 SeptemberI do not think that manipulating copyrighted material downloaded from someone’s website to make it look the way you want it constitutes Fair Use. Jason had nothing to do with complaints on Facebook. People who think you-all are bullies did.
Beelady33
Posted at 17:48h, 21 SeptemberI don’t think “copyright” means what Mitch thinks it means…
Mitch
Posted at 21:16h, 21 SeptemberWhat does ole Mitch think it means?
Beelady33
Posted at 22:21h, 21 SeptemberA photograph some guy (a public employee) posts to a social media website is not protected. It is in the public domain and is being used under Fair Use laws. If he’s so sure there is a “copyright” violation, then he should sue. If the library has made him a news story (by refusing to turn over his emails which belong to the public domain) then they are to blame for his photograph (that he posted to social media) being used in a news story about a public body refusing to turn over public records. None of ya’ll went to law school…I can tell
blount
Posted at 22:11h, 21 SeptemberAnd if you make a FOIA request so unspecific like asking for all of someone’s emails without a specific purpose other than attributing it to a phrase on a LinkedIn page, the request ts going to get denied. And the you can make a stink about it. Don’t these folks know this by now?
jmkraft
Posted at 22:27h, 21 SeptemberThat is not a legitimate reason to deny a FOIA request. Don’t these libraries know this by now?