MY TURN: CLN board is not controlling CIN
Plass
I am compelled to respond to the Michelle Lippert opinion published April 8. As an elected Community Library Network (CLN) trustee, I wish to clarify my intentions, which are not what she portrayed. Ms. Lippert paints an image of a devious CLN board attempting to “seize control” of the Cooperative Information Network (CIN) libraries. What have you been smoking, Ms. Lippert?
In May 2023, “Tim and Tom,” aka T&T, were elected by a strong majority in Kootenai County with an expectation to remove the rapidly appearing obscene books from the CLN minor sections. That was the primary issue that caused us to be slathered with labels such as “religious extremists” and outspent 5x in the campaign. The CLN district voters rejected the previous board and authorized T&T to help clean out the seven CLN libraries, even without help from the state.
We worked as quickly as possible, under difficult conditions such as having to work with a liberal, uncooperative library director hired by the previous board two weeks before we took office. We wrote, debated and edited our own new policies, one of our few powers delegated by the state of Idaho, instead of taking the proposals offered by the library director. CLN was the first library district to split its withdrawal/selection policy into two separate policies, one for withdrawal and a more stringent one for selection, because the courts recognize libraries have freedom to create their collections. Courts do not allow books to be removed from libraries, citing that as First Amendment violations. CLN affiliations and financial support of the American Library Association were ended. The previous board added underpaid positions, leaving an impossible $200K shortfall budget even with a maximum 3% tax increase. Unfilled positions, programs and materials cuts, along with rebating already-collected URD taxes, yielded a 0.6% tax decrease the first year. Taxes were only raised 1% the next year while providing recommended generous staff salary increases. The rapidly increasing CLN tax trend has been broken.
Before the ID 18-1517B statute became law last summer, the selection and withdrawal policies mirroring that law were finalized. A new library director who works with the board was hired. The Mature Content Collection policy was implemented, creating the “adult access only” location specified in the new statute for books deemed “Harmful to Minors.” Moving these books to the adult section was not an option because CLN minors have access to that area. Closing off the adult section was unacceptable because minors need access to good material there, such as history and cookbooks. The Mature Content Collection, another special collection at CLN, was the solution, because it is closed off to minors.
The board changed the minor card policy to prevent CLN minors from being able to obtain “Harmful to Minor” books from libraries that do not follow the new Idaho law. CLN minor cards can request books from CLN libraries but not from non-CLN libraries because CLN cannot control what they provide. The new CLN policies prevent harmful adult or minor books from being accessed by or delivered to CLN minors, which is simply complying with the law; they do not control policies for minors at CIN libraries.
Ms. Lippert shows herself to be an unqualified, uninformed CLN trustee candidate opposed to the will of the 2023 CLN voters by twisting our reasonable, common-sense actions as censorship and an attempt to control 15 non-CLN libraries. Vote for the only CLN trustee candidate aligned with the board majority.
CIN should not try to bully or attempt to control CLN policy in any way. The CLN board is following the new Idaho library law that protects minors, even if other Idaho CIN libraries are not. The CLN board is not making decisions about which books are harmful to minors. Most of the books in question are fiction, which has no academic, scientific or cultural value to minors and can justifiably be reshelved in the Mature Content Collection due to their adult content. They are not being removed from the libraries. This is not censorship. A publisher refusing to print or distributor refusing to sell a book might be considered censorship.
The value CIN provides to CLN is that many CIN books being borrowed are classics that were discarded under the previous board’s watch. One of my campaign promises was to bring classic books back to CLN, so let’s do that! CIN needs CLN. CLN pays for over half the CIN budget. CIN should be happy to have CLN as a member.
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Tim Plass is a Community Library Network trustee and clerk of the board.