Community Library Network’s new policies could fracture regional library consortium

COEUR d’ALENE — For decades, the Community Information Network has enabled libraries in North Idaho and Eastern Washington to share their collections, broadening their patrons’ access to materials.  

A new, more restrictive policy for minor library cardholders within the Community Library Network could mean the end of the partnership.  

During a recent CLN board meeting, some trustees appeared troubled that CLN cardholders who are minors can check out books from non-CLN libraries within the consortium.  

“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.”  

Some library directors are equally troubled by CLN’s changing policies about access to materials for minor patrons.  

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.”

CLN is also combing through the entire collection for material deemed “harmful to minors,” which will be placed in a new “mature content collection.” This material will be inaccessible to minor patrons, regardless of the wishes of their parents or guardians.  

CLN trustees have maintained that the network’s policies are designed to comply with an Idaho law passed last year requiring libraries to take action to prevent minors from accessing “obscene materials.” Critics say CLN’s policies far exceed the requirements of the law.  

Two years ago, CLN trustees voted unanimously to adopt a policy that created three types of library cards for minors. Parents and guardians could choose what card their children had, giving them access to the children’s collection (geared for ages 0-12), the children’s and teen collection (geared for ages 13-15) or open access to the entire CLN collection.  

Mandy Walters, director of the Pend Oreille County Library District in Washington, said the 2023 policy change didn’t seem unreasonable to the rest of the consortium because it didn’t affect other libraries and still allowed parents and guardians the freedom to choose what materials their children could access.  

“We thought it would fix the problem (the CLN trustees) were trying to solve,” she said. “Whether that was a real problem is up for debate.”  

In hindsight, she said, the policy change was a bellwether of shifting attitudes toward libraries and access to library materials in the region.  

“Maybe we should’ve seen it that way,” she said. “We understand the landscape we’re operating in. Some communities are more liberal or conservative than others, especially in Idaho, where you have elected boards that are going to swing with the political winds.”

She’s concerned about CLN’s updated policy for minor library patrons, which she said runs counter to the values that libraries should uphold.  

“We want to leave parenting to parents,” she said. “You get to make those decisions for your kid. I don’t. I provide a variety of materials and you make the call. It’s really unfortunate that (CLN trustees) are taking power away from parents.” 

In January, the library consortium approved the articles of incorporation needed to reorganize as Inland Northwest Libraries, a name that Meagan Mize, director of the West Bonner Library District, said more clearly expresses the consortium’s function and purpose.  

The next step is for the member libraries to sign a joint powers agreement outlining the consortium’s structure. Mize said CLN has had a draft copy of the agreement for more than two months but has put off signing it.  

CLN Director Martin Walters declined to be interviewed for this story but stated he has received the Inland Northwest Libraries proposed joint powers agreement.  

“This proposed (joint powers agreement) will be discussed at an upcoming CLN trustee meeting,” he said via email. “Consequently, I have nothing to report at this time.”  

Mize said CLN’s updated policy is a liability for every library in the consortium.  

“If we agree to maintain their policies and abide by those policies, we’re also opening ourselves up to First Amendment lawsuits,” she said. “It’s just straight up not what a library’s purpose is.”  

In a recent column published in The Press, CLN Trustee Tom Hanley argued that First Amendment concerns are irrelevant because “although children have constitutional rights, they do not have them to the same degree that adults do.”  

Hanley described the consortium’s concerns as “a bullying tactic that the co-op's board and others may use to publicly vilify the CLN board” and said, “the CLN board will not be intimidated by the co-op’s board.” 

Mize said three options are before Inland Northwest Libraries: to remain a single unit, to dissolve completely or to go on without certain libraries — such as the seven Kootenai County libraries that comprise the Community Library Network. 

Whether CLN remains part of the consortium will likely be decided in April, when the group meets again. 

Other regions in Idaho have library consortiums of their own. The Lynx Library Consortium includes eight city and district libraries in the Treasure Valley and three outlying libraries in Twin Falls, Emmett and Mountain Home.  

When the Twin Falls Public Library joined the consortium last year, patrons went from having access to about 200,000 materials to more than 2 million materials. Wait times for materials also decreased significantly.  

“It’s seamless,” said Tara Bartley, director of the Twin Falls Public Library and vice chair of the Lynx Library Consortium. “We don’t have to interlibrary loan any materials anymore. When (patrons) request something, they get the material within two days.”  

Each library in the consortium is independent, Bartley said, with its own policies and procedures. But the libraries also work together “to make sure those policies aren’t hindering the patron.” For example, the libraries are aligning their loan periods and the number of items patrons can have checked out at once so those things are consistent across the network.  

“What are we all there for?” Bartley said. “It is for public use, the patrons’ access. We really do try to make that the most important thing when we are talking about the function of our consortium.”  

CLN leaving the consortium would affect the other libraries, Mize said. But she believes it’s survivable.  

“We lived for a year without Post Falls and it didn’t really hurt us,” she said, referring to the 11-month period when the Post Falls Library, CLN’s biggest branch, was closed due to water damage.  

Walters said her library district’s patrons would likely feel an impact from the loss of CLN, especially when it comes to wait times for popular material.  

“I don’t think it’s a loss that can’t be made up,” she said. “It might be slower to get items because there are fewer available (without CLN’s collection).”  

Hanley suggested that Inland Northwest Libraries would be at fault for patrons losing access to any material, not CLN.  

“Did you know if the CLN is voted out, it will be the co-op’s board who will be required to answer for the 101,691 co-op's patrons who were negatively impacted by their irresponsible actions?” he said in a recent column. 

“I am heartbroken over the current status of things,” Mize said. “I believe library service should be borderless. I believe the residents of Kootenai County should have access to everything and maintain the same level of service that they have. We don’t want to punish anybody or take away anybody’s access to information. We also don’t want to stay married to corruption and behavior and policies that directly go against Americans’ First Amendment Rights.”  

Mize is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and can trace her ancestry to 33 men who fought in the Revolutionary War. That’s part of why she holds her constitutionally guaranteed freedoms so dear and why she loves libraries, which she described as “democracy in action.”  

Elected officials enacting policies that limit the materials that public library patrons can access is an erosion of those rights, she said.  

“That people 250 years later, who have lived under nothing but a veil of freedom, want to reject that right is patently offensive,” Mize said. “It breaks my heart. These people swear they’re doing all these things for God and country. No, you’re not. You didn’t give me those rights. God did.”