Recently Asked Questions (RAQs)

Our association library is considering changing some librarian positions from salaried “professional” to hourly. Is that legal?

We were recently reviewing our reconsideration procedure and form. One of my trustees has completed a training on book bans and challenges. The presenter (Jamie LaRue) recommended that the library requires the book (or item) have been read (viewed or listened to) fully by the patron in order to submit a request.

It made sense to my trustee (and, personally, me) that, since we would now have to put in the time to read it fully, they should too. But, I was concerned if we could require that.

So, initially I checked with other directors, and I think only one said that they required it. Most, if not all ask, as we do. Another said they use the patron’s answer to help inform their own decision. Another said no, the patron would probably just lie. Another director wrote: “ALA OIF [Office for Intellectual Freedom] routinely advises libraries that: ‘The reconsideration process should be completed in its entirety and not subverted or ended prematurely, leaving the library open to legal challenge.’ So requiring that might open the library up to accusations of not completing the process, especially if that point was not explicitly covered within the reconsideration policy.” So, what are your thoughts?

A community member hosts a “free with donation” yoga class at our library, and attendees are encouraged to make a donation each class. These donations are collected by the yoga instructor who hands them to the circulation assistant and identifies it as a donation to the Friends of the Library organization. She keeps her receipts and totals the money each year, claiming these donations on her taxes as her contribution to a 501(c)3 organization (the Friends of the Library).

So my question is, does this constitute as fraud in any way? If so, will this be problematic for the yoga instructor, the Friends of the Library, or the Library itself (municipality) for hosting the event? They are collecting money from other people for providing a service and claiming all the donations collected as their own for a tax write off.

Any guidance on this will be appreciated! Perhaps a simple solution would be to re-word how this is done, saying that donations to the yoga instructor will be made to the yoga instructor and not advertised as a fundraiser for the Friends.

Thank you!

We are an association library that receives about 75% of our operating budget from a tax levy approved by school district voters via a [New York State Education Law Section] 259 ballot proposition. In 2019 the school informed us that they had settled a case with a local resident about the assessed value of their property and how much was paid in taxes in 2018 and 2019. The assessment was changed, and the school owed him a refund. The district proposed to deduct the library’s amount of the refund from our 2019-20 tax levy. We were advised at the time that the district had no standing to do this, and that the law did not provide a recourse for refund of association library taxes.

Now we’ve received a demand for refund from the attorney of a different resident who had been disputing their assessment every year since 2018 (covering tax years 18/19, 19/20, 20/21, 21/22, 22/23 and 23/24). We’ve received no communication from the town or the school - just a letter from the attorney. It was settled in court, yet we had no idea it was happening. The town and the school district were represented and part of the negotiation, but not the library.

We have three questions:

1) Do we need to pay refunds to tax levies received in prior years?

2) If we’re not obligated to pay the refund, would the school district have to pay it on our behalf as the tax collector? and

3) Are we subject to settlements that we weren’t involved in, nor aware of?

Any other advice you have on proactively managing this issue going forward would be much appreciated!

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.