Alpena County Library reconsideration policy tabled, for now
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ALPENA -- The Alpena County Library Board of Trustees met for its monthly meeting on Wednesday. Board members discussed a revision to the library's reconsideration policy. Some board members argued that the policy contained redundancies and should be tabled before approving.
According to the American Library Association, a library reconsideration policy is a formal, written procedure used to handle complaints or challenges when a patron objects to a book, program, or other material in the library’s collection.
The latest policy was approved by the board in July.
During public comment, community member Diane O'Connor brought up the question of redundancy in the policy, stating that she believes policies should be accurate and clear.
"I think it's so important when you're writing policies that you make it very clear what the end point is," she said. "Looking it over, I think you leave it as very nebulous. I think that's just bad policy writing in my opinion."
Board members discussed a specific instance of redundancy which included a proposed addition in the following line:
"Materials meeting the definition of harmful to minors and/or sexually explicit under MCL 722.671-722.684 shall be placed or classified in a way that minimizes inadvertent exposure to children by relocation to the adult section, while not infringing upon adults and parental access rights."
Board Member Jennifer Graham argued that adding "and/or sexually explicit" was redundant. Board Member Julie Byrnes explained that the redundancy is important to be specific.
"That’s part of it, and very exclusively states what can and cannot be harmful to minors would be rather difficult to show, to prove, but sexually explicit is very, very clear," Byrnes said.
"Within the MCL, the definition of harmful to minors includes, I want to say, six or seven different definitions," Graham added. "It’s very clear what is considered harmful to minors. The terms, adding in the term, and/or sexually explicit, is actually redundant because it includes that within the harmful to minors. It doesn’t need to be added in there."
Board members debated the reasoning of adding the redundancy and removing the redundancy.
Byrnes argued that even if it is redundant, the library bylaws allow board members to write policies that meet the needs of the board. Graham argued that the redundancy should be removed from the policy because it is unnecessary and introduces inconsistencies that could compromise the First Amendment rights of people.
"Because if you determine sexually explicit matter is not allowed, that it can be moved around or removed or anything else within the library, you are on a very thin line of violating the First Amendment rights of people in the library and we can't do that."
She added that when the law is referenced, the verbiage should be placed in quotations.
Dustin Budd, board president, said that he can understand why the addition should be added or removed, but added that he thinks adding "and/or sexually explicit" is more clear.
"I think it's clearer to me on the sexually explicit matter," he said.
"I'd rather have both," Byrnes added. "I don't see it being totally clear. I don't see it being clear enough to really define what we want."
The board chose to table the discussion before making a decision at the next board meeting in September.
Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.