Garfield County Public Library District trustees met in Carbondale on June 6. It was mentioned that the citzen’s oversight committee held its first meeting of the year via Zoom on May 6.
In attendance at the May 6 meeting were: Ksana Oglesby (volunteer member), Michelle Foster (board treasurer), Jamie LaRue (executive director) and Kevin Hettler (CFO). Guests in attendance were Nancy Barnes (branch libraries director) and Jackie Skala (library accountant). The report said the committee encourages members to recruit additional members. Their next meeting is Oct. 7.
A detailed agenda for the June 6 meeting included several updates:
The district bought smart door counters to help maximize the best hours of operation;
The district rolled out its new website;
The first-ever Dia del Niño festival for children attracted more than 300 attendees;
A new digitization staff position commenced, in partnership with the Glenwood Springs Historical Society;
Youth services interns were hired.
Management Report
Technical Services Director Jenn Cook presented Executive Director Jamie LaRue’s monthly report. He led off his report, in the meeting packet, with an update on SB 24-216, recently signed into Colorado law. LaRue was not present at the meeting.
SB 24-216 contains several key provisions, including a directive that public libraries shall establish written policies for the acquisition, retention, display and use of library resources. “We have done so,” LaRue’s report stated.
The bill also includes many provisions of the Library Bill of Rights (already adopted by the Garfield County libraries board). Among the bill’s provisions:
A public library shall not proscribe or prohibit the circulation or procurement of library materials because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval;
A public library is responsible for resisting censorship;
Challengers of library materials must reside within the library’s legal service area;
The library must make the resolution of a challenge available to the public;
A request for a reconsideration of a challenge is an open record. The name and address of challengers are not confidential and would be provided through a Colorado Open Records Act request.
LaRue’s report said that Colorado is the fifth state to adopt an “anti-censorship” law. He elaborated there have been “several alarming pro-censorship” bills adopted in about a dozen states and similar bills under consideration in 27 others. He cited several states’ new bills, including:
In Missouri, access to Overdrive and Hoopla, platforms that provide libraries with ebooks, are now denied to minors;
Idaho’s “The Children’s Library and Protection” act allows anyone to claim a book is “harmful to minors” (which includes mentioning any act of homosexuality) and requires the library to move the item to an “adults only” section. LaRue said the tiny Donnelly Public Library in Idaho had to close its doors altogether because it doesn’t have space to create an “adults only” section;
In Alabama, anyone can claim a library resource is “obscene” and if not removed in seven days, the librarian can be fined up to $6,000 per incident and sentenced to one year in jail.
LaRue’s report continued: “Our library is already meeting the highest standards for the management of our collections and displays, but this new legislation firmly establishes the right to broadest possible access to the stories and ideas of our culture and protects library staff from prosecution for simply doing their jobs. My congratulations to the Colorado Association of Libraries Legislative Committee and the bill sponsors.”
LaRue concluded his report by saying he attended the recent Colorado Public Library Directors retreat in Grand Junction. One issue discussed at the retreat is the movement by several groups of county commissioners on the Western Slope to “actively” interfere with library operations. This has been seen with board appointment processes, but also pushing to replace paid staff with volunteers, a trend that is “putting libraries in the culture wars crosshairs,” LaRue’s report stated.