Recently Asked Questions

NOTE: On 5/13/22, Erie 1 BOCES hosted a program[1] regarding school library materials management.  That same week, the Erie County Bar Association hosted a CLE on the same topic[2].

At both programs, school district library personnel discussed the ethics of their professions.  They also shared their personal experiences with collection management issues, including attempted censorship of library materials.

Both sessions were inspired by concerns, rooted in the current political climate, that school districts could feel pressure to sidestep policy and direct the removal or limitation of "controversial" library materials without due process.

The law, policy, and case law covered at the session was extensive. Below is a summary of the major take-aways, in a "Do's and Don'ts" format.

QUESTION

What are the "legal do's and don'ts" of school district library collection management in New York?

[1] "Collection, Selection, Objection": the recording can be located through your regional BOCES or school district library system.

[2] More information on this "Continuing Legal Education" seminar is here:  https://eriebar.org/product/2433-more-than-a-book-ban-advising-municipalities-schools-and-libraries-during-a-book-challenge/

If a teacher teaches a novel in school, can they show the DVD of the movie under fair use?

I am asking this on behalf of the Elementary School in my district. (I work in the library of our district's high school). The Elementary School participates every year in a program called PARP. (Parents As Reading Partners). The teachers and principal always make some sort of video to kick this off this event since pandemic times.

This year the entire school is reading the SAME book: The World According to Humphrey, by Betty G. Birny. (It's a story about a Hamster and how he deals with life issues). My district's teachers want to "borrow" liberally from this Animoto video: https://animoto.com/play/ICom40fpoTdMzDov931aDQ

This video contains four components: 1. Another School (We'll call it School X, an independent school in California essentially doing the same thing), 2. an interview with the author segment, Betty G. Birny, 3. an interview with a store clerk from PetCo and 4. a video of a hamster performing "cute antics" with a voice-over dubbed in called April's Animals. (This individual posts varied animal videos on YouTube)

What my teachers want to do is create their OWN video of teachers and the principal endorsing this book, interspersed with the hamster video from April's Animals. I did observe at the end of the Animoto video, there were credits provided. My school would not use the PetCo interview or the Author Interview or the School X video as those segments are directly related to that specific school. They want to do the same idea and only use the video provided by April's Animals. I didn't know if this would be problematic because we are a public school, this would not be posted on YouTube. It would be shown over our school network to our K-2 classrooms one time only.

In a local school district, multiple books have been challenged recently. This week, the School Board received an email from a community member referencing record keeping for library materials and electronic records retention. The district Superintendent wants to make sure that the district is keeping the right kind of library records, and that they are keeping them for the legal amount of time. Attached are two documents to review. In the first document titled District Records, under #15, it advised that districts should keep a list of book lists and school library reports. With this, should the district have kept a list of all books in their libraries in any given year?

We were asked about signage to post over the copier at a schools where educational materials are copied. Below is some template language with footnotes explaining why they say what they do.  Of course, before posting in your school or library, check with your lawyer!