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The Collection Development Policy was approved and includes several chapters guiding the selection and maintenance of materials with established criteria for the various collections which are described, as well as to provide a framework for evaluation of and improvement in the collection.
DAYTON-The Columbia County Rural Library District Board of Trustees reviewed and approved a series of business items including the Collection Development Policy on August 17. Library Director Ellen Brigham presented her report along with the financial report. The Board approved a second public comment period to continue.
The Collection Development Policy was approved following months of review with only minor edits. The policy includes several chapters guiding the selection and maintenance of materials with an established criteria for the various collections which are described, as well as to provide a framework for evaluation of and improvement in the collection. The collection is considered constitutionally protected by the Trustees as stated in the policy.
Some significant changes to the policy were proposed which were not supported by a majority of the Board. One was changing the language to read the library is for "all people" rather than listing all the specific protected classes. This was suggested because some classes were missing. After consulting with the attorney, Brigham suggested they update the list to include all protected classes because it may make them vulnerable to lawsuits, to which the Board agreed.
Another suggested change that was not supported was to remove specific parts of the appendices that included documents from the American Library Association on the grounds that their inclusion is unnecessary as part of the library policy. The Board decided instead to link the documents rather than include them in their text form or remove them completely.
The final proposed change was suggested by Board Vice Chair Kevin Rust to adopt content guidelines based on those approved by the library district in Campbell County, Wyo., earlier this year. These content guidelines prohibit various sexual content for minors and aims to impose CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) requirements to print materials for minors.
After hearing the suggestion, Trustee Sharon Mendel exclaimed, "This is sick!" Peggy James and Paul Hendrickson, in comments given later, said they wished the Board felt the content of the books were as sick as the proposed content guidelines.
Brigham strongly urged the board against the additions, claiming it would bring a lawsuit. She asserted the CIPA guidelines are strictly for the internet and claimed that the library district is not going to be one to "send up a flag and be like, 'Hey, we're going to change this and start the revolution of the world!'"
"If this was done through the court system and been approved," Trustee Dale Walling agreed, "then we could talk about it...but we can't be the ones to send it through the court system." The collection development policy was then approved unanimously.
In other business, Brigham reported strong patronage numbers in July and the successful completion of the Summer Reading Program. She told the Board the library would be closed on a Monday in September due to two of the staff attending a work conference and a medical appointment for herself which would leave only one full-time staff member to work without a lunch break. They suggested they close for the lunch hour but stay open the regular hours that day.
Brigham told the Board that for the digitization of the newspapers to conform with the required standards of the National Digital Newspaper Program and to be posted online through the Washington Digital Newspapers website, they would need to spend another $10,000 on the process. The other option presented was to host them through Newspapers.com who would do the work to conform them to the standards. Doing this would require a three-year commitment and would be no cost to the library, but users would have to pay for a subscription to access them. The Board agreed they would pursue the second option and asked Brigham to determine whether a staff member could post the already digitized copies online.
In the financial report the Board questioned the expense of a puppet show for $750 that drew about a dozen kids. Otherwise, the report was approved without any discrepancies.
The Board approved to add another public comment section at the beginning of monthly meetings following the approval of the agenda for the purpose of commenting on the agenda. This will allow for two public comment periods during the monthly board meetings.
The next meeting is on September 16.
