CLN trustees talk minor cardholder policy

COEUR d’ALENE — Amid discussions about what materials minor Community Library Network patrons ought to be able to check out from non-CLN libraries, trustees reiterated their position that CLN’s policies don’t wrongfully restrict access to library materials.

Thursday night’s regular CLN board meeting, held at the Post Falls Library, came after members of North Idaho’s interlibrary loan consortium expressed concerns about an internal document indicating that minors from outside CLN would not be allowed to access CLN libraries.

The Spokesman-Review reported that members of the Cooperative Information Network pressed CLN Director Martin Walters on the matter last week and that Walters walked back the document, saying it was not CLN policy.

Some CLN trustees appeared troubled Thursday that CLN cardholders who are minors can check out books from non-CLN libraries within the consortium, which includes North Idaho libraries, as well as Liberty Lake Library and Pend Oreille Library District in Washington.

“We’re saying that somebody could take a CLN card to Liberty Lake and they would honor it?” Trustee Tim Plass asked. “That seems really bizarre to me that Liberty Lake, Wash., would honor a CLN card.”

Walters told the board that a card from one library within the consortium can be used at any other library in the group.

CLN policy states that library cards for minors “cannot be used to reserve physical or electronic materials from other libraries in the Cooperative Information Network.” But Walters told trustees that CLN has no control over the policies of libraries outside the network and cannot prevent cardholders from checking out materials at other libraries.

“(The libraries) all have their own autonomous government structure and directors,” he said.

Hayden resident Naomi Strom told trustees during the public comment period that CLN is likely to be expelled from the consortium as a result of its policy on library cards for minors.

“When implemented, the policy will take away parents’ rights to choose open access cards for their children and will negatively impact the other libraries in the CIN, in violation of its member agreement,” Strom said. “The consequences of expulsion or withdrawal from the CIN are far-reaching and complex. If you ask long-time staff, they’ll tell you that leaving the CIN could be disastrous.”

In response to comments from community members, Trustee Tom Hanley described a “cabal” of “perverted authors, perverted publishers and perverted marketing operations” who he said depend on “our taxpayer-funded libraries and schools to support their depravity.”

“If parents want their children to have access to smut, I suggest they pay for it and visit Barnes and Noble or log onto Amazon, and if someone wishes instead to support the local economy, I’m sure they can find an adult bookstore between here and downtown Spokane,” Hanley said. “Oh, that’s right. I’m guessing that minors will probably be prohibited from entering or making a purchase. They probably can’t buy cigarettes there, either.”

Most of the 140 titles that have been pulled from CLN shelves pending review for possible shelving in an adults-only room at the Post Falls Library are published by major publishers and available to purchase in most bookstores. Many of the titles are bestsellers.

Hanley’s statements were punctured by outbursts from the audience.

“You guys are violating the Constitution,” a man shouted.

“You are violating our rights as parents,” a woman said.

Hanley told detractors to “suck it up and deal with it.”

Plass said he believes the library network’s more restrictive policies are necessary to protect children from “concepts that will ruin their lives.”

“We don’t want to subject our minors to confusing ideas that will lead them astray to having a normal, standard, time-tested way to have a family, have a life,” he said.

Coeur d’Alene resident Josiah Mannion urged the board “to have a little more faith” in library patrons and the community at large.

“The kind of faith I think your God has in us humans, granting us free will, trusting that we will use it,” he said. “I think y’all need to pass on a little of that faith in the ability of parents to know their kids and teens well enough to provide their own safety rails around their exploration of the world, knowing that at some point, they’ve got to go out there on their own. Faith that kids and teens, by and large, provide their own safety rails, too, seeking out the information and fiction that they need in order to navigate and explore the world from within the relative safety of books.”