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0 pointstptacek1y ago0 comments

They send emails to IT. The classic example of a thing you can get through FOIA is large-scale dumps of emails from Exchange Servers, which is also not something a Clerk can do themselves, but which IT staff can immediately retrieve.

Leave the "Clerk" bit of this out and just imagine you're requesting straight from the IT department. What you can do: get anything not otherwise exempt that they know how to retrieve (it usually helps to provide example commands in the requests). What you cannot do: ask them to go look around and see what they have. That's research. Research is your job, not theirs, under Illinois FOIA.

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hunter2_1y ago· 1 in thread

If research is my job, and looking around is research, then couldn't I look around and see what they have instead of asking them to do so?

tptacekOP1y ago

Maybe? If you work there, I guess? Or if you're really nice to them? But they're under no obligation to help you. The tradeoff in Illinois (and most other good FOIA law): you can get almost anything you want --- way more than most people think --- but you can't get public staff to go do research work for you.

Again: this is why pulling schemas is so valuable.

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