Library network trustees continue refining policies
COEUR d'ALENE — Legal counsel for the Community Library Network's board of trustees found a sentence in the statement and intent piece of a draft Materials Selection Policy to be unusual.
The sentence: “No specific book or material was contemplated during the enactment of this policy, and it is entirely unknown what, if any, future books or materials could be subject to this policy.”
“It’s a statement that a trustee could just make on the record,” CLN attorney D. Colton Boyles said Thursday during a special meeting of the board. “It wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate or required in a policy.”
Boyles said the sentence, while not prohibited, may have limited legal use in the future. Vice Chair Tom Hanley, who crafted the original draft, said it was in the draft policy to ensure no one interpreted the policy to appear as though the board was “going after a particular book.” He said he is OK striking it if it doesn’t provide the network with any extra legal protection.
“If legal counsel doesn’t see any value in that, I’m not obsessed with it,” Hanley said.
Chair Rachelle Ottosen said she hasn’t considered or contemplated any specific book or material in the enactment of the policy and doesn’t care if that sentence is in the policy. Trustee Katie Blank said she would be happy to remove it.
The trustees removed the sentence by consensus as they continued to review and edit the draft policy during the three-hour special meeting at the Post Falls Library.
As they spoke about the definition of “appropriateness,” as it is used in the selection process piece of the draft policy, Blank and Trustee Vanessa Robinson asked Boyles to explain the impacts of using a definition from somewhere other than Idaho Code.
“I would much rather have the Idaho Code stated and anybody can look that up and read for themselves, whether it’s staff or a patron, they can look that up, read it, see what the definitions for the code are," Robinson said.
“I don’t like the policy in general,” she said. “I would also like to look at the staff policy that they wrote under the suggestion of the attorney. But I really don’t like these definitions on our policy and I would like to go with the actual Idaho Code.”
Boyles said the board should avoid conflict and build into the policy an oversight mechanism for the director to make those determinations. He said he would like to see one decision maker and one set of criteria that aligns as closely as possible with state statute.
Trustee Tim Plass said he would like to leave it the way it is.
“This is just simply a criteria for what we’re going to purchase, and I do not see why it has to align with Idaho Code,” he said.
Community Library Network trustees will continue to work on this policy as well as the Materials Withdrawal and Reconsideration Policy, the Director Evaluation Policy and other items during a regular meeting of the board at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Hayden Library, 8385 N. Government Way. Public comment will be permitted.
Info: communitylibrary.net
Hanley
Ottosen