Recently Asked Questions (RAQs)

Background: On Jan 1, 2023 we instituted several changes to employee time off accrual policies. We constructed the new vacation accrual policies carefully and gave some of our more senior staff "legacy policies" in order to not decrease any current employee's vacation accrual rate. However, we DID institute a cap on the number of vacation hours an employee could bank at any given time (1/2 a year for FT staff, and 1/4 yr FTE for PT staff). We did this for two reasons: 1) to mitigate financial risk to our library in the event of unforeseen separations, when we pay out any unused vacation time, and 2) to encourage staff to take regular vacations, which prevents burnout and encourages us to understand each other's job responsibilities better when covering for someone else.

Unfortunately, the vacation cap has had some unintended consequences. Some staff members are reticent to take vacation and are bumping up against the cap each month, which effectively means their compensation is being reduced. Also, our PT staff work varying number of hours per week (20-32) but we don't prorate the PT vacation cap (for logistical reasons), which makes it difficult for staff who work close to FT hours to save up enough time to take a longer vacation, or multiple vacations in a relatively short period.

My legal question is: If we were to change our time off accrual policy to allow staff to bank as much vacation as they like but specify that upon separation they could only be paid out 'x' number of hours, could we be accused of wage theft?

A local artist has asked for us to become a fiscal sponsor (act as a “pass-through” organization). Is this something a public library can do?

Politics are impacting libraries more than ever, and our library organization is considering hiring a lobbyist to represent our interests in Albany.  We know that as a non-profit we can't engage in "political activity", but can we hire a lobbyist?  And if we can, what do we need to be thinking about, legally?

Is there professional insurance for librarians? Given the book-banning lawsuits, do librarians and library workers need additional insurance to cover possible lawsuits? Other states have passed laws fining library workers $10,000. Besides the library's D and O insurance, do librarians and library workers need additional insurance coverage?

We are revising our Meeting Room Policy. Currently we have a group of seniors who meet at our library for [really healthy] exercise in the morning before the library is open. They have been doing this for about [many] years. As we know the participants very well and they want to meet before the library is open, we have allowed them to come into the building when it is not officially open.

There is no staff on duty. They open and lock up when finished. This has been a wonderful service we can provide our seniors in a rural community where there are very few options for group gatherings. We would like to keep this practice in place.

However, as we discuss the meeting room policy, we realize that we would not be comfortable with having other groups be in the library when we were not open to the public with staff present.

Can we write our policy to allow this group to continue with the current practice, yet limit other groups to only use the meeting room when the library is open.