Category: Library Laws and Regulations

Requests for Reconsideration 

If you are already looking over your collection development policies based on our last blog post, here is the other, crucial side of your collection development policy: offering a space for patrons to express their concern about library materials, or a Request for Reconsideration. 

You may have noticed how much the word “professional” was used in the last post. That is because, while librarians are trained professionals, they are often not recognized as such. It’s not common knowledge that to be a professional Librarian, someone needs to hold a Master’s in Library and Information Science (MLIS). Because we deal so frequently at the intersection of information and people, the rights upheld by the First Amendment come into play more often than many people would expect and it’s essential that the professional, non-partisan nature of librarianship should be emphasized.  

What is a Request for Reconsideration? 

When it is presented in good faith, a Request for Reconsideration (RfR) opens discourse between the library and its community and can create a better understanding between both parties. It’s important for the public to understand, however, that RfRs take extensive time and effort which ends up costing the library and the municipality’s taxpayer dollars – time, effort and taxpayer dollars that are taken away from doing another part of library work for your community. To allow professional librarians to continue to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and to understand the basis of a good faith request, requests for reconsideration should require the patron to fully consider their objection and put it in their own words. When putting together a standard RfR form to accompany your collection development policy, consider beginning with a basic template (you can find an example here) and then adding the following requirements to the process in order to protect the time and efforts of library staff and encourage good faith challenges: 

  • A signature that acknowledges both receipt and understanding of the collection development policy, including the review process 
  • A notice that challenged materials will NOT be removed, relocated, or restricted from any collection while under consideration 
  • The length of time before a specific title (item, material, etc.) may be challenged again once a decision has been made (for example: once a determination has been made a title cannot be challenged again for 2 years, including new editions that may come out) 
  • Notice that only an official reconsideration form will activate a reconsideration procedure. * Phone calls, rumors, voiced concerns, emails, social media comments, etc. are not sufficient to initiate a reconsideration process, though it is important for the library to keep track of these “informal” complaints. Anyone bringing a concern to the library may (and should) be given an official reconsideration form. 
  • Notice that an official reconsideration form must be filled out in its entirety. Incomplete, anonymous, or otherwise partially completed forms will not be sufficient to activate the process 
  • Notice that form(s) must be filled out in the challenger’s own words; copied and pasted text from other sources (websites, social media, etc.) invalidate the personal nature of the concern and may not be considered 
  • A statement requiring that the person raising a concern be a member of the community (ex. resident, cardholder, etc.). For example: “In striving to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, challenges brought by those outside the library’s community may not be considered” 
  • A request that the patron suggests alternative material that is of equal literary quality, can provide similar information, and convey as valuable a picture and perspective of the subject as the item they are requesting be removed 
  • A description of the appeals process should the patron disagree with the library’s initial response to the reconsideration request 
  • Ideally (depending upon library staffing levels), the process should consist of a review by a committee of professional staff appointed by the director 
  • 1st appeal of the committee decision should be to the Library Director 
  • 2nd (and final) appeal lies with the Library Board of Trustees who will conduct a challenge hearing and render their binding decision at the following Board meeting.  

Handling challenges to library materials 

Should a patron want to challenge library materials, they should be made aware of what to expect on the library’s part as well. Describing the process that a request for reconsideration will go through provides the community with transparency and accountability on behalf of the library.  

  • The Library should strive for a review timeline that is reasonable based on staffing conditions, ** but should also be timely in relation to a filed complaint. Two weeks to 1 month for a full, formal review from the filing of the initial complaint to providing the complainant with a decision is generally reasonable. Unless a severe staff shortage prevents the process from moving forward, all efforts should be made to keep the review process moving along swiftly.  
  • The Library should consider the item in question in its entirety, not taking passages, excerpts, clips, or descriptions out of context 
  • The Library should review all parts of the purchasing process and review the decision to make the purchase in the context of the collection development policy 
  • The Library should remain as objective as possible. Should the challenged item not meet the selection criteria, the library must be willing to acknowledge that the item is unsuitable for the library collection and withdraw the item.  
  • Whenever possible, the person who made the initial selection to purchase the item should not be on the appointed committee to review an item when it is challenged.   

Additional considerations you may want to make in regard to a reconsideration process:  

  • Require this process for challenges not just to selected materials, but to displays and programming as well. Displays and programs are also library services that are thoughtfully curated by professionals and are subject to internal guidelines and policies. You can include programming and displays in your collection development policy or have a separate policy on the curation and selection of display materials and programs. All complainants should receive a copy of the relevant polic(ies) to review, so make sure you are covered with what they may be objecting to.  
  • Keep frontline staff interactions at a minimum. Challenges are often highly charged exchanges, even when conducted civilly. This puts a stress on anyone receiving the complaint. Train frontline staff (use scripts if you can***) to acknowledge that the person is bringing a concern to them; inform the person that there is a formal procedure that all those who want to pursue a complaint must follow and; if at all possible, send that person to the Library Director (or official designee in the Director’s absence). Frontline staff’s efforts are best directed toward their regular duties, responding to the needs of patrons with more routine requests  

Expressing the responsibilities of both the complainant and the library ensures that a good faith challenge receives full consideration; reduces the appearance of arbitrariness (both in responding to a challenge and selecting materials); and clarifies the duties of the library staff when this situation arrives at your library’s doorstep.  

*  The library should strongly consider funneling all informal RfRs through the library’s administrative team. This will both limit the amount of time desk staff spend listening to complaints that, ultimately, they won’t have the power to address; and allows the official RfR form to be given to the person with a concern by someone with the knowledge to fully answer questions about the collection development policy and authority to respond to the patron’s request.  

** Staffing shortages are all too common in library services, particularly with professionals leaving library service. If you find at the beginning of the process that you are unable to follow the timeline set out in your policies, it is crucial that you are upfront about this, communicate it in an objective manner to the patron making a complaint and provide the patron with an updated timeline based on your current staffing situation.  

*** More information on scripts will be coming in a future blog post! 

Collection Development Policies 

Welcome back to our blog series helping libraries strengthen and protect themselves. The last post talked about policy in general. This and the next several posts will be offering recommendations for specific policies that, if you haven’t updated them within the last 2 years, you should be prioritizing their review. 

What makes a strong collection development policy?

The first policy that any library should make sure is strong, recent, and clear is their collection development policy. This policy explains to any interested member of the public the reasoning behind why your library chooses the items that go into your collection. It provides the guideposts by which library staff makes their decisions about what goes into a library collection. It is critical in helping the public understand that books don’t appear on the shelves by magic; they are not chosen blindly or at random and the amount of work and professional input that goes into managing a library’s collection is substantial. A strong collection development policy focuses on key distinctions that make libraries and librarians uniquely qualified to make materials choices:  

  • Professional training – make sure your policy clarifies that those making your collection development decisions are trained professionals. A Librarian with an MLIS will have had collection development training as part of their professional degree. If you have paraprofessionals making collection decisions, make sure they have received training so they understand the basic principles of collection development and understand prioritizing the needs of the community over personal preferences.  
A computer monitor displays library course content on a desk in a stock image, promoting collection development. The monitor shows "Basic Library Techniques: Collection Development and Management Part 1."

The Massachusetts Library System has just deployed a Collection Management course as part of their Basic Library Techniques learning modules. It provides solid understanding of what goes into collection development and management. Should this not fit your needs, there are several additional online options to make sure your staff are up to date on their skills. Feel free to reach out for some additional suggestions.

  • Professional review sources – Booklist, Library Journal, School Library Journal, are all professionally vetted review sources that librarians have relied upon and trusted for years. Collection decisions based on reviews by these professional journals (and select others, including but not limited to Horn Book, Publisher’s Weekly, etc.) are the primary means by which to make informed decision. Specify that you do NOT make collection decisions based on resources that are not widely professionally accepted. 
     For example: Common Sense Media is not a collection development tool, though it and other similar resources may be helpful readers' advisory tools to help patrons find material that are relevant to them. This recognizes that, while librarians do not have the time to personally read every book that goes in the collection, they are making those choices in good faith based on industry and professional standards. 
  • Weeding as part of professional collection duties – Weeding is a natural part of the collection cycle, but unexpected, large weeding projects can erode public trust. Community members are not library professionals and often don’t understand that weeding is not only a normal part of library operations, but an essential one to keep collections relevant, updated and circulating. Be clear about your criteria for weeding and emphasize that it is part of your staff’s expertise as collection managers and well within the scope of professional duties to determine whether or not a book warrants a place in the library’s collection. Having a part of your collection development policy dedicated to CREW/MUSTIE guidelines reminds your staff and your patrons that weeding is not an arbitrary process. Give an approximate timeline of how often or under what circumstances your staff will evaluate what’s in their collections.  
  • Professional determinations of sections – It is generally worthwhile to include the sections you have in your library (adult, children, teen, media, library of things, audiobooks, large print, etc.). It will also be worthwhile to note in writing that the sections are not limited to any particular age group and are arranged to help make library materials as easy to find as possible. The responsibility of material relevance lies with the individual, or with a caregiver for their own child(ren). The section in which an item resides is not designed to determine the audience for that item. If your library makes use of stickers to highlight genres or for other wayfinding purposes, you may want to mention this as well, noting that the sticker is a tool to help match relevant material with its reader and is not a restrictive guideline.  
  • Professional determinations of relevance – The professional review sources like those mentioned above give approximate age ranges that the materials are intended for. It is up to the professional librarians to determine relevance from there; relevance for the collection, relevance for the community and relevance for individuals who may be interested in the topic. Your collection development policy is a great opportunity to remind people of your training which makes these types of relevance determinations as a matter of course. You would likely not give Erik Larson’s Dead Wake to a 3rd grader doing a poster presentation on the Lusitania. You may, however, give an adult a fiction book whose audience is primarily teens because the book has all of the tropes, action, and/or themes that reader enjoys. You may also give a teen a picture book for a project because it has images that are captivating, rare, or may describe concepts in a way that can help describe a topic to other people, regardless of the teen’s mastery of the topic. The possibilities are endless, so I don’t recommend trying to get specific in your policy. It may be worth your while, however, to describe how books end up in certain sections to help patrons find materials and note that those sections may be browsed by anyone who finds the topic relevant.  
  • Inclusivity as a professional standard – Most collection development policies state that they strive to be representative of all people in their community. The broadness of this statement can feel all-encompassing or inclusive, but in reality, is vague enough to be difficult to define. Consider defining the communities, identities and groups you want to ensure are represented in your library. * This list does not have to be exhaustive; “including but not limited to” can be a powerful phrase. Specifically naming communities you know are marginalized or underrepresented demonstrates your commitment to ensuring representation in your collections and makes purposefully excluding those named communities against library policy. Highlighting and strengthening your commitment to vulnerable communities has an additional benefit of being solid ground for display themes. When you outline these specifics, know that you will be backed up by State Law Chapter 78, Section 33 which states that public library staff develop collections that reflect the breadth of human experience, which is both diverse and interconnected. There are several Massachusetts organizations which agree upon this principle. 

Community Input

Your library’s collection should reflect perspectives that you find in your community, perspectives that may broaden your community’s horizons, and be able to anticipate their needs. Consider having a method for community members to communicate to you items they would like to see in your collection outlined in your policy. It is an opportunity to find out what your community may be interested in. You are under no obligation to put every item that someone from the community suggests into the collection. Suggestions must still follow your collection development policy. Outlining those expectations directly in your policy allows your community members to voice their opinions while simultaneously setting boundaries that trained library professionals are the ones who make the final decisions on what the library puts on its shelves.  

Some additional questions to consider when thinking about community input include:  

  • What qualifies as a community member – A resident? A library card holder? Will you have a community member identify themselves as such?  
  • How will you address local authors in your policy?  
  • How will you address unsolicited donations, particularly those where patrons may expect to see those donations on-shelf?  
  • What timeline will you give for a response (if any) to any community collection request?  

* A last note about collection development policies is that they should always have some type of request for reconsideration as part of its policy. This is a hugely important step in protecting intellectual freedom for all, and as such, deserves its own blog post. I’ll break down some considerations to keep the process of a challenge as straightforward as possible in the next installment. 

 

Protecting You, Your Staff and Your Patrons

Welcome to the first in a series of posts designed to help you fortify your library to protect you, your staff, and your patrons. A library is at its strongest when there are clear, unambiguous expectations for everyone to follow and one of the best ways to implement these expectations is through policy.   

Good policies reduce ambiguity and create stability for you, your staff, and your patrons. Solid, consistently applied policies build a foundation of trust and accountability which goes a long way to keep the library from undue scrutiny. When you are a consistent, trustworthy institution (as we know libraries are) you can dispel appearances of bias or arbitrariness, making one hurdle towards support and funding easier to clear.  

Make Sure Your Library’s Policies are Thorough

Policy should be a primary focus of Trustee Boards and Library Directors, who should work together to create the strongest policies possible. The Director will inform the Board with the boots-on-the-ground input about library operations. The Board will offer an outside perspective, different skill sets, and, occasionally expertise (depending on what a Board member does for their day job) and ideally, implement a schedule for reviewing and updating the policies. Make sure your policies have been updated within the last 2 years. If you have a lot of policies that need updating, work together to put a schedule together and consider prioritizing these:  

  • Collection Development *including a request for reconsideration (RfR) process* 
  • Patron Behavior/ Patron Rights and Responsibilities/ Library Use
  • Programming (including a RfR) 
  • Crisis Communication (with scripts)
  • Meeting Room Use 
  • Circulation 
  • Social Media 

Guidelines for Establishing Library Policies

When you are looking through your policies, here are a few general guidelines to keep in mind that can apply to all of them:  

Think in terms of what you can allow
Libraries exist to provide access. A list of restrictions will never be comprehensive enough to cover all possible infractions and only serves to keep your library from being a welcoming space. Setting up expectations and boundaries go a long way to creating a mutual understanding of not just what cannot be done in your library, but what can be done there as well. 

Use plain, clear language
Your policy binder should be a regularly consulted, guiding force in your library. Be as clear and concise as you can so that frontline staff can easily refer to and explain your library’s policies to anyone using your library in a way that everyone can understand.  

Take advantage of your resources
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Many a solid policy has been made by taking the most relevant and useful pieces of policies from other libraries and putting them to use in your library. The Massachusetts Library System (MLS) has an extensive collection of library policies for you to use as a starting point. Take a look at other libraries in the state with similar populations, sizes or town governance for ideas as well. Never hesitate to reach out to the MBLC for assistance!   

Consistency is key
Exceptional customer service is a hallmark of standard library operations here in Massachusetts; staff get to know patrons and are able to tailor services accordingly. This should always be our priority, but we need to make sure that our policies are being applied consistently. Your newcomers or occasional users should have no less consideration than your frequent flyers. This is one consideration that can protect you and your staff the most. If you can’t apply your policy to every single person who walks through your doors, you need to revisit it. Otherwise, your policy won’t be able to withstand scrutiny and you, and your staff will lose the credibility and protections your policy is there to provide.  

Think of your staff
Will your staff be able to enforce all of the policies you’re updating? Do your boots-on-the-ground people feel the policies are reasonable? A bit of feedback, especially for policies that are new or heavily revised can go a long way to helping your staff be consistent when the polices are approved by the Board. 

Consider who you’re not reaching (yet)
Every library has groups of patrons that are underrepresented in the library’s services. If you are weaving in concepts of inclusion; taking into account different cultures, abilities and perspectives; working to ensure that all community types are welcome in your library directly into every policy, then your policies will be more accessible to everyone who comes through your doors. The more accessible they are, the easier they will be to understand, enforce and apply consistently. 

Have your drafted policies reviewed by an attorney
Most cities and towns have a solicitor they use for advice. Given that most MA libraries are town departments, you should avail yourself of their services for advice on your policies. An attorney comes with a knowledge of recent case law and what is enforceable. Your municipality should appreciate your efforts. Any initial investment in reviewing your policies will provide long-term protection and cost-savings for your municipality overall.  

Train Staff and Review Policies Regularly

As much as we would love it to be the case, policy is never a one-and-done situation. Make sure you’re devoting time to remind and train everyone on your staff throughout the year. Make sure there is a digital copy of the policy binder that all staff can access, give your policies dedicated space on your library’s website, and make sure there is at least one full, printed copy of the policy binder at every service point. (Bonus points if you have printed out extra copies of policies that may frequently come up, so your staff is ready to give a copy to patrons.)  

If a policy no longer works for you, you have the right to change it. You do not have to wait until the policy is up for its next review to make tweaks. If you or your staff are finding a policy difficult to follow or enforce, or if you are finding that a policy cannot be applied equitably for all library users, work in changes that make more sense and get the changes on your next Board agenda.  

Most people did not get their MLIS in hopes that they would be able to craft sound library policy one day. However, getting your policies in order will help you and your staff do the other important work of librarianship more confidently and with less stress. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the MBLC for assistance on policy considerations or helping Boards of Trustees get up to speed with needed policy changes. 

Contact Tracing and Libraries

By Maura Deedy, Library Advisory Specialist at the MBLC

This post is intended to educate the library community, and is not and should not be interpreted as legal advice. We recommend specific questions should be addressed with a local Board of Health or local legal counsel.

Librarians have been concerned with some of the sector specific guidelines that required keeping a log of visitors for contact tracing, such as office spaces. Directors and library staff have reached out to Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) for clarification. MBLC staff communicated these concerns to the Department of Public Health (DPH) and communicated with Privacy Officers about concerns that visitor logs would be a violation of MGL Chapter 78 Section 7 which states “the part of the records of a public library which reveals the identity and intellectual pursuits of a person using such library shall not be a public record”.

The Governor’s specific guidance for libraries that was released on June 8 does not include keeping a log of visitors. MBLC does not recommend keeping such a log. We do not see a role for keeping this kind of information according to the state’s current contact tracing strategy.

Give current library operations, which most are curbside or circulation desk pick up, or appointment based services the amount of interaction between library staff and patrons should be very limited and very short. Future phases may include limited browsing or access to technology, which may increase the amount of time people are interacting but may not be sustained close contact.

That said, we wanted to share with the library community our understanding of contract tracing:

When a person tests positive for COVID-19, DPH will contact the local board of health (LBOH) where the person lives. The LBOH reaches out to the positive resident to learn who they have been in contact with. The contact tracers will ask for a list of all the people the covid-19 positive person has been within six feet of during the two days before they had symptoms or close contact as defined by the CDC. If the person does not have symptoms, the contact tracers will ask about the activity during the two days prior to diagnosis.  The contact tracers will ask for the phone numbers of those people, and follow up with them. The name of the person who tested positive is kept private, as part of HIPAA laws.

Source: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/learn-about-the-community-tracing-collaborative

Close Contact Definition: “Someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated” according to the CDC. Source.

July 7, 2020 Update:
Sector specific guidance that was released on July 6 for libraries included this mandatory safety standard: “Maintain a log of workers and patrons to support contact tracing (name, date, time, contact information) if needed”.

We will continue to communicate our concerns to the Department of Public Health and the Reopening Advisory Board that contact tracing in libraries violates patron privacy laws. We do not see a role for this information. While contract tracing is essential for public health, we have concerns that the library community was not consulted on the inclusion of this mandate nor was our recommendation that it not be included heeded.
We will update this blog post as needed.

Best Practice for Trustees: Town and City Charters

By Rob Favini, Head of Library Advisory and Development at the MBLC

The laws that establish the authority and role of library trustees can be found in the Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 78. It is important to know that in some instances, state laws governing Libraries and trustees are superseded by local laws found in town and city charters. Trustees should be aware of all established and proposed local laws that pertain to the organization and management of their library. Today’s Trustee Handbook Focus looks at local charters and how they impact libraries.

TOWN AND CITY CHARTERS and HOME RULE PETITIONS

Some Massachusetts municipalities are governed by special legislation or a charter, components of which may or may not relate directly to the library. It is critical for trustees to know if their municipality has such a charter or has plans to implement one, and if so, how its provisions affect their library. While trustees have traditionally looked to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 78 to delineate the rights and responsibilities of trustees to exert “custody and management” over public libraries, a local charter will take precedence over Massachusetts General Laws.

If your community is planning a charter change or adoption, make sure that at least one trustee becomes familiar with the charter reform process, and is informed every step of the way about proposed changes. A proactive board is a well-informed board which serves as a partner in the change process. It is much easier to keep unfortunate changes out of the charter than to try to fix problems after the fact. The following are issues which may not constitute the main thrust of the changes to the charter, but may somehow “sneak” in if trustees don’t pay careful attention:

  • Who will the director report to? In some towns, the town administrator has the authority to appoint department heads. Make sure that the power of the library board is not eroded; in other words, make sure it is spelled out in the charter that the board of trustees governs the library and appoints the director.
  • Will the library be grouped with other town departments for purposes of efficiency? The library could lose its status as a separate department, becoming combined with other departments which do not share common missions or organizational/operational methods.
  • Will all human resource functions be centralized? Under whose control? Trustees should help develop a municipal plan for the transfer of employees between departments. Make sure the library director has responsibility for the hiring, dismissal, and supervision of library personnel.
  • Any charter proposal should contain provisions specifying the duties and powers of the board of trustees. Make sure the board has control of the library’s budget, personnel issues, and policy making authority.
  • Another issue that might be introduced is the number and kind of trustees. Monitor for proposals that would change the way trustees are elected or appointed. Who has the authority to appoint trustees? Will there be ex-officio trustees (those appointed by virtue of their office, i.e. selectmen and clergy) who may change the constitution of the library board?

If your municipality is considering a charter or home rule change, it is imperative for your board to be involved and aware of the seriousness of the issues at stake. If charter reform, home rule petition or other effort is underway to revamp municipal power and decision-making, the library should get involved from the start to advocate for wording which exempts the library from being under the control of another municipal department or officer.

Trustee Tip!
Successful boards of trustees know what’s happening in their communities and are active players in the local political process. Remember that it is your responsibility as a trustee to advocate for the best possible library services and practices. Library boards that stay active and involved in community affairs yearround are better positioned to make their case for the library than boards that wait until “crunch time” to get involved.

Today’s Trustee Handbook Focus can be found on pages 39 – 41 of the Massachusetts Public Library Trustee Handbook.

For more information about all services and resources available to trustees please visit the MBLC Trustee page (https://mblc.state.ma.us/for/trustees.php).

Have a question relating to your board? Contact Maura Deedy (maura.deedy@mass.gov) or Rob Favini (robert.favini@state.ma.us)

Please join us at the MBLC’s Trustee Institute, April 27th! For information and registration: https://mblc.libcal.com/event/5158107?hs=a