Recently Asked Questions

My Director has asked me to ask you the following question. In normal circumstances the library would host the meetings of local organizations that do not have a building of their own. The library hosts the meetings of organizations like "Concerned Citizens", "Race Unity Circle", the "Bahá'í society", etc. All nonprofits that do not have large budgets and utilize the library for their meetings. Is the library legally allowed to use the library's Zoom subscription to host meetings for these groups as an Outreach Program? In the same way the librarian would be there to book the meeting, set up tables/chairs, and greet the group, the Zoom meeting would be booked, the link distributed to members, and the librarian there to open the meeting up at the specified time. I would be interested if your answer is different depending on whether the library is in an emergency closure situation or not.

I understand that the libraries need a disclaimer stating that the library is not responsible should a visitor or patron become ill with COVID-19. Is this true, and if so, do you have suggestions on wording for this disclaimer?
Thank you

Public and Association libraries have questions about making policies creating conditions that must be met for library staff to return to work. Can they set policies that exclude vulnerable employees from being able to return to work? Can they set policies requiring non-vulnerable employees to return to work?

If staff record themselves through our phone system reading published short stories and poems that are then made accessible to the public through the same phone system, are there issues with copyright? Various public libraries nationwide offer dial a story services, and my school district public library is looking to offer this too. Some of our patrons do not have access to technology and internet, so we want to offer this no frills service during our COVID-19 closure, and beyond. The recordings would likely be 3 to 7 minutes in length and offered a couple of times a week.

As we look to re-opening our public libraries with abridged services, we want to limit the chances of legal challenge from organizations who seek to make a statement about government response to COVID-19 and social distancing measures. We are considering a recommendation to have a brief policy manual addendum with policy adjustments that supersede the policy manual, have a short review and renew period (aligned with the library board meeting schedule), and are triggered by an objective, external to the library, event. What elements would we need to include in this addendum to make it legally enforceable, while not re-writing the entire policy manual?

Take, for instance, a library's meeting room policy. For a library with a 2,000 sq ft community room, with a normal occupancy of 250 persons and a seated occupancy of 150 persons (fake numbers), in which the board meets every other month.
- Initial addendum policy would have a line which said "Meeting Room: The meeting room is closed to all groups. Policy approved April 27, 2020. Will expire June 26, 2020."
- At the June board meeting the board passed "Meeting Room: The meeting room will open for library sponsored programming July 1st. Registration will be required and limited to 20 persons to follow current social distancing guidelines. Policy approved June 26, 2020. Will expire August 27, 2020."

And so on.

What are recommendations for the pre-amble of such an addendum? What should we make sure to include in the board motion to enact the emergency policy addendum such that it supersedes the standard manual?