Recently Asked Questions

Recently, a page at the library made some comments that were less than flattering about how the local town was handling a new subdivision. The town supervisor came to me (we are an association library and not part of the town government) and asked if our personnel handbook had any language about social media use. He shared that the town personnel handbook had a clause about not disparaging the town when you are an employee. Our handbook does not have specific language on this matter, instead stating that “Appropriate use of the Internet, email and social media is expected.” (There are more clauses about how and when to use the libraries social media, but this seems to be the only line about personal social media)

He and I discussed the matter further and he made a suggestion that the library should look in to whether or not a non-disparagement clause should be part of our social media policy. I got the impression he further thinks that should apply to our major funders (mostly, the town).

How, if at all, should libraries handle personal social media use by employees, especially in regards to usage that might disparage the library or the town that funds us?

Within the context of recent regional school book challenges, much of the attention has been focused on print collections. However, librarians and school districts have started to look at digital content, too.

Sora is the K-12 platform used by many students and staff in NYS to access OverDrive content (as opposed to Libby, which is used by public library patrons). In Sora, content access levels can be implemented to restrict access to content.

Here is how OverDrive defines content access levels:

Content access levels let you control which types of users can view and borrow certain titles in your digital collection. Content access levels are customizable and can be different from the publisher-defined audience label.

Note: In the Libby app, users will be able to see all titles in your digital collection, regardless of content access levels. If a user tries to borrow a book that's restricted by content access level, the checkout won't be completed and the user will get an error message.

Content access levels are designed to let you manage access to titles based on age-appropriateness. Users are assigned a user type ("Adult," "Young Adult," or "Juvenile") when you set up authentication (for schools) or based on library card type (for libraries). Users can access titles at or below their access level:

"Adult" users can access all titles
"Young Adult" users can only access titles you label "Young Adult" or "Juvenile"
"Juvenile" users can only access titles you label "Juvenile"

A title's content access levels, which are assigned by you, may be different from the title's audience, which is assigned in its metadata by the publisher.
 

I am wondering if restricting digital access to content by grade level and/or to individual student could/would be another "creative work around" to limit access that may or may not be outside of board policy?

[NOTE: We didn't get this as a submission to "Ask the Lawyer", but we wish we had...]

Our library board is considering a resolution to bar displays celebrating Pride Month.  The ban focuses on, but is not limited to, displays in children's/YA areas.  Is this a legal issue?

Periodically, our library receives handwritten requests for information from individuals who are incarcerated at prisons and correctional facilities around the country.

We are an academic library at a private institution and our campus does not currently have a prison outreach program. As part of our ongoing social justice efforts within the library, we would like to be more purposeful about the way we handle these reference questions.

What are legal considerations we should keep in mind when providing reference services to incarcerated individuals? Ideally, we would want to treat these questions the same way we would questions from members of the general public. However, our team wants to be sure we understand whether there are ways we could unintentionally put ourselves or our institution at legal risk if we provide information that is somehow deemed problematic.

(Note: We are aware of the Prison Library Support Network and plan to participate in trainings they may offer.)
Thanks!

Local police walked through our Library earlier today with no explanation. Later on, we noticed 2 teens on premises, who we assume should have been in school. We thought the police may have been looking for them as truants, but that is not confirmed. The question is, if the police were to ask if we saw the teens, are we able to answer or is that considered a violation of patron privacy as it is with patron information and records?