Hi there,
Sometimes we are concerned about the "what" when it comes to materials being checked out at our circulation desks. However, we are required by law to protect our library user's privacy. Please review the documents below. This is useful for all of us to review from time to time. Our role as librarians is to be impartial and provide open access to information. Parents and teachers have the role of monitoring what the youth are reading.
http://www.newtonfreelibrary.net/?sec=about&doc=privacy
I like the Newton Public Library document about privacy. Very nicely stated.
Mass General Laws
Section 7. A town may establish and maintain public libraries for its inhabitants under regulations prescribed by the city council or by the town, and may receive, hold and manage any gift, bequest or devise therefor. The city council of a city or the selectmen of a town may place in such library the books, reports and laws which may be received from the commonwealth. That part of the records of a public library which reveals the identity and intellectual pursuits of a person using such library shall not be a public record as defined by clause Twenty-sixth of section seven of chapter four. Library authorities may disclose or exchange information relating to library users for the purposes of inter-library cooperation and coordination, including but not limited to, the purposes of facilitating the sharing of resources among library jurisdictions as authorized by clause (1) of section nineteen E or enforcing the provisions of sections ninety-nine and one hundred of chapter two hundred and sixty-six.
ALA Freedom to Read Statement
Louise
Sometimes we are concerned about the "what" when it comes to materials being checked out at our circulation desks. However, we are required by law to protect our library user's privacy. Please review the documents below. This is useful for all of us to review from time to time. Our role as librarians is to be impartial and provide open access to information. Parents and teachers have the role of monitoring what the youth are reading.
http://www.newtonfreelibrary.net/?sec=about&doc=privacy
I like the Newton Public Library document about privacy. Very nicely stated.
Mass General Laws
Section 7. A town may establish and maintain public libraries for its inhabitants under regulations prescribed by the city council or by the town, and may receive, hold and manage any gift, bequest or devise therefor. The city council of a city or the selectmen of a town may place in such library the books, reports and laws which may be received from the commonwealth. That part of the records of a public library which reveals the identity and intellectual pursuits of a person using such library shall not be a public record as defined by clause Twenty-sixth of section seven of chapter four. Library authorities may disclose or exchange information relating to library users for the purposes of inter-library cooperation and coordination, including but not limited to, the purposes of facilitating the sharing of resources among library jurisdictions as authorized by clause (1) of section nineteen E or enforcing the provisions of sections ninety-nine and one hundred of chapter two hundred and sixty-six.
ALA Freedom to Read Statement
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There is no place in our society for efforts to coerce the taste
of others, to confine adults to the reading matter deemed suitable for
adolescents, or to inhibit the efforts of writers to achieve artistic
expression.
To some, much of modern expression is shocking. But is not much of
life itself shocking? We cut off literature at the source if we prevent
writers from dealing with the stuff of life. Parents and teachers have a
responsibility to prepare the young to meet the diversity of
experiences in life to which they will be exposed, as they have a
responsibility to help them learn to think critically for themselves.
These are affirmative responsibilities, not to be discharged simply by
preventing them from reading works for which they are not yet prepared.
In these matters values differ, and values cannot be legislated; nor can
machinery be devised that will suit the demands of one group without
limiting the freedom of others.
For the full ALA Freedom to Read Statement, click here.
Thank you for taking the time to review these statements. Let me know what you think! More to come.
Louise
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