Recently Asked Questions (RAQs)

The board of trustees of a public school district library owns the library building. A private club occupies the entire second floor. The private club has traditionally not paid any rent or utilities, nor has it contributed to the upkeep of the building in any way.

The library, through a public vote of the school district, covers all of the costs of the building. Could the library be in danger of mismanagement of funds or losing its charter?

Could you please provide the effective date of 8 CRR-NY 90.2?

Are all public libraries required to publish their budgets online on their websites?

Our library is trying to set some parameters around what we require from a patron in order to check out library materials to them. For adults and teens, this is straightforward: we require they have their library card or a form of identification. We are struggling to find a procedure that works for children when they visit the library without a library card, accompanied by someone who is not their parent or legal guardian. This includes kids who visit the library on field trips or with their daycare, or who come with a friend or extended family member.

We want to have a procedure that balances the rights of minors to read freely, with protection for our library against claims that we have checked out materials to children that the parent/guardian believes to be inappropriate.

Some details about our library's policies:
1. We are a public library and do not restrict borrowing privileges by age group. A card holder is permitted to check out anything in the library, regardless of their age.
2. When a child (birth - age 11) gets a library card, their parent or legal guardian must fill out and sign an application that states: “My child has permission to have a library card. I understand that all library collections, including adult material and internet access, are available to children. I accept responsibility for my child's use of the library and any loss incurred.” This application is retained until the cardholder becomes an adult.[1]

We are not primarily concerned with the financial contract between the library and the parent/guardian, but with the potential fallout if a parent were to become angry that their child was permitted to check something out without their library card. If the card is present — say Dad gave it to Grandma when she offered to bring the kids to the library — we feel somewhat assured by having the parent's signature from the original card application. When the card is NOT present, though, we worry that we're opening ourselves up to problems.

We do have a compassionate/creative internal library card that we occasionally use to check out items to folks when our library's policies (e.g. Requiring a card/ID be present) are interfering with the library's ability to fulfill its mission (e.g. Teen has a book report that's due tomorrow and they didn't bring their wallet). We're concerned that if we used that mechanism to check something out to a younger child whose parent is not with them, we could be accused of using our Public Library Agenda to thwart parents' rights. 

Are we overthinking this?

If a prospective employer specifically asks about a candidate’s physical capacity to do a job and they say they can do all of the tasks required, and then notify us afterwards that they need accommodations for things they said they could do without them, are we:

a) by law required to provide them 

OR

b) can we make a decision that the person is not able to do the essential functions of the job and therefore not be allowed to continue in their employment?

Dishonesty in applying for jobs seems grounds for termination, but when it comes to disabilities, I realize it’s a minefield.

I read the response to the question of whether certain types of libraries must abide by the minimum wage in New York (https://wnylrc.org/raq/minimum-wage-public-library-employees). This includes the mandatory minimum salary paid to professional employees in certain categories who are exempt from overtime, most of whom (in libraries) have master’s degrees. I have to admit, I’m really disturbed that any entity in NYS can get away with paying as low as the federal minimum wage, given what the cost of living has climbed to.

You state that this is legal [for certain libraries] but any library considering this option [should engage an attorney with malpractice insurance to review that library's status under the law and provide a written opinion pertaining only to that library] before embarking on this path. Can you also speak to the potential downsides of choosing to pay less than the NYS minimum wage and minimum exempt salary if you discover you are allowed to do so? Thanks so much.