Library network adopts minor library card policy

POST FALLS — A new policy regarding library cards for minors was unanimously adopted Thursday by trustees of the Community Library Network during a regular meeting of the board at the Post Falls Library.

The policy allows parents and guardians to authorize their children younger than 18 to have their own library cards. It also gives them the ability to restrict their children's access to the children's collection, geared to ages 0-12, the teen's section, for youth ages 13 to 15, or open access to the entire collection in the library.

To accomplish this, materials in the children's and young adult sections must be re-catalogued to create the new teen section. Because of the requirements of this massive undertaking, the expected timeline is to have the updated children's section and access ready by July 1 with the teen section and access ready by Jan. 1. The library network will keep the public notified of the progress.

Trustee Regina McCrae responded to accusations that the library board is only making changes because of pressure that has been placed on the board in the past two years by community members who have fervently voiced issues with materials they deem offensive to which children may have access.

"That is absolutely false," McCrea said. "We are not considering this policy out of duress."

She said two years ago, two Kootenai County Republican Central Committee-backed candidates were elected to the board.

"Their first order of business was the programming policy. We also were onboarding a new director at that time," she said, adding that government moves slowly.

"We have to have notice of everything that we're doing, notice has to go out to the public," she said. "We have policies that come in front of us that go through multiple iterations before they're passed."

She said the programming policy was updated when a local pastor and his group presented a petition regarding language in that policy.

"We incorporated the verbiage from that petition into our programming policy," McCrea said.

The board has also recently updated its materials selection policy, she said.

"Some of you will remember that we were digesting and working our way through updating the materials selection policy," McCrea said. "We voluntarily, not under duress, put the language from the criminal code into our materials selection policy. That was done intentionally and in response to what we have heard from the public. This board has attempted to be responsive to comments from the public."

To suggest the board has sat idly by and done nothing is patently untrue, McCrea said.

"It's very easy to accuse this board of inaction when you have not sat on our side of the room and tried to deal with the constraints that we have to deal with as a public entity and an elected board that can only take action as an elected board when we are all together," she said.

This meeting was much tamer than the February meeting, when two police officers were called to help maintain order after people from opposing viewpoints became hostile with one another and some giving public comment refused to conclude when their three minutes were up. Capacity restrictions were tightly enforced at Thursday's meeting, and one officer was in attendance to keep a watchful eye through another lengthy, and again at times heated, public comment period.

The next regular meeting of the Community Library Network board is scheduled for 9 a.m. April 18 at the Athol Library, 30399 Third St., Athol.