Community Library Network board talks regional consortium, ‘propaganda’ policy

POST FALLS — Community Library Network trustees put off deciding whether to sign a new joint powers agreement with a regional library consortium and to adopt an updated materials selection and acquisition policy that labels “propaganda promoting illegal activity” as “inappropriate for minors.”

The Cooperative Information Network is a group of 13 North Idaho and Eastern Washington libraries and library districts that share their collections. The consortium is preparing to reorganize under the name Inland Northwest Libraries.

Several member libraries have expressed reservations about CLN’s updated policies for minor library cardholders, which state that minor cards “cannot be used to reserve physical or electronic materials from other libraries in the Cooperative Information Network” and bar minor library patrons from accessing material deemed “harmful to minors,” regardless of the wishes of their parents or guardians.

These policies are overly strict, some library directors said, going beyond the requirements of Idaho law and creating possible legal liabilities for CLN and other libraries in the consortium.

Whether CLN remains part of the consortium will likely be decided in April, when the group meets again, but CLN trustees said Thursday that they aren’t in any hurry to make a commitment, as the existing joint powers agreement runs through next spring.

“I believe our patrons benefit from and desire participation in this consortium, so I want to do whatever we reasonably can to remain part of it while still retaining local control,” Trustee Rachelle Ottosen said. “Knowing the current (agreement) is effective until May 2026 sounds like we don’t have to rush this.”

Trustee Tony Ambrosetti said he’d like CLN to be part of Inland Northwest Libraries but said he believes other member libraries are “thumbing their noses” at Idaho law and have “pummeled” CLN Director Martin Walters with “disrespectful comments and inquisitions” related to CLN’s minor library cardholder policies.

“I’m not sure we can trust these scoundrels,” he said.

Walters said the library network contributes about $46,000 to the consortium annually for the shared materials courier service and about the same amount in annual dues. CLN also contributes about $100,000 annually for Overdrive, a shared service that provides access to digital content including ebooks and audiobooks. If CLN leaves the consortium, it would need to replace those services and consider whether to acquire materials from other collections that CLN patrons would lose access to.

“We can get our own courier,” Walters said. “We can begin to build our own e-resource collection. Those are very expensive.”

Trustees agreed to meet April 10 to discuss the proposed Inland Northwest Libraries joint powers agreement with legal counsel in executive session, ahead of the consortium’s next meeting.

“Let’s go there in April and make a proposal and get the best possible outcome,” CLN attorney Colton Boyles told the board.

The board also discussed a proposed policy update that would redefine “materials inappropriate for minors” as “obscene or sexually explicit content and propaganda promoting illegal activity.”

“Propaganda means that quality of any description, exhibition, presentation or representation, in whatever form, of abortion, sexual assault, polygamy, suicide or illicit drug use,” the draft policy states, when the average adult “would find that the material has a predominant tendency to indoctrinate, normalize or influence minors in regard to activity that is illegal in the state of Idaho” and that the material “lacks serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors.”

Trustee Tim Plass indicated the light in which the content is depicted makes no difference.

“Propaganda, in this case, is a novel that is going through and explaining what’s happening minute by minute with the characters, and maybe it’s not saying this is OK, but the fact that it’s a novel going through and explaining how this is happening and how there’s this enjoyment and how this person’s thinking,” he said. “To me, that’s familiarizing the reader, and that is propaganda, even though it doesn’t say, you know, propaganda.”

Trustee Vanessa Robinson said she’s concerned that the term “propaganda” is too vague and subjective to be applied consistently, while Boyles said the lack of specificity in the proposed policy could leave it open to challenge.

The board is expected to revisit the policy change during a future meeting.

    Plass