Recently Asked Questions (RAQs)

A municipal public library has accepted a gift of real property and is selling the property.

How much autonomy does the Library have in accepting and selling this property? The sponsoring municipality feels that perhaps it is their responsibility to handle the sale according to their regular procedures, including a permissive referendum (as required by law).

Finally, who controls the proceeds from the sale?

Can an employer require a negative COVID test before an employee comes to work? We have discussed it on our [public library system] member directors list but have not come up with a clear yes or no answer.

The awful CASE ACT is now a law. While I think the language is problematic, I fear trolls will try to collect money ($30,000) from libraries unaware of this change in copyright. Here is a blog post that I thought was helpful https://www.recreatecoalition.org/the-case-act-now-what/

What should we be doing? Thanks.

I've seen libraries take pictures of book covers and promote them on their library social media page, and was wondering if the same policy holds for movies. Can we take a picture of the front covers our new DVDs and promote them on Facebook? Or is it preferred that patrons browse our new DVDs in the library and/or on our library catalog?

Even though we purchased a movie license, I do know that due to copyright laws, we are not allowed to promote on social media any movies that we are showing at the library. Patrons are asked to call us and inquire what movie we are showing. Thanks for the help!

We received some questions from a chartered museum about weeding from the museum's internal research library:

• What legal considerations govern weeding and/or deaccessioning the materials from a museum's library?
• What if the museum’s library isn't sure how it acquired the materials?
• What might the legal ramifications be if the institution were to transfer select items from their library to a historical society more in line with their content and origins?
• Does the museum have the legal right to sell the materials at auction?