Eastern Idaho librarians implement a variety of methods to comply with new library law
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POCATELLO — Librarians across eastern Idaho are using a variety of methods to comply with a law that restricts materials to minors.
The law, which was reintroduced a number of times in the Legislature, was passed on April 3 and became enforceable on July 1. It makes it so that anyone can submit a “request for reconsideration” on a library item to have it moved to a section with restricted access to minors, defined as anyone under the age of 18.
If the library doesn’t comply with the request within 60 days, the person who made the request could sue. This is separate from the already existing reconsideration process in place for most libraries.
The intent of the law is to limit children from accessing material deemed to be “obscene.” The law relies on Idaho’s existing definition of obscene materials, which includes the term “homosexuality” under the definition of “sexual conduct.”
All of the librarians interviewed by EastIdahoNews.com said that they don’t make sexual content available to children.
“We put things that are sexual in the adult section because sex is an adult activity, but I feel like everything we have has value,” said Michelle Tolman, director of the Bonneville County Library District.
Although some libraries have simply created a restricted section and made relocation request forms available, one library has closed off its third floor to children who have not been allowed access by their parents or guardians. Because this is a new law, different libraries have been given different advice by their lawyers, based on their interpretation.
Despite this law being in effect for over two weeks, none of the three libraries and the library district interviewed by EastIdahoNews.com have received a request for relocation on any titles. The director of the Blackfoot Public Library, Lisa Harral, is fine with that.
“At the current time, there is absolutely nothing on that shelf, and we hope it stays that way,” Harral said.
The Blackfoot Library decided to put its adults-only section on one shelf in an office behind the front desk. Even if a parent or guardian wants to give their child access to a book that has been relocated, they’re not able to. This also means that staff members who are minors would not be allowed to shelve that book in the section.
In addition to this new section, the Blackfoot Library implemented a tiered-card system. The three tiers are a white “Restricted” card, which only has access to the children’s section, an orange “Unrestricted” card, which allows parents and guardians to choose which aspects of the library’s collection their child can access, and a blue adult card, which has access to the whole library.
Children with a white card need their parent or guardian to be present for them to be in the library. Harral said that they did this because while they wouldn’t check a book outside of the children’s collection to a child with a white card, they don’t have the staff to monitor everyone who comes through the library.
“If they’ve signed their child up for that restricted card, then we feel that parent also should be enforcing that restriction,” Harral said.
In the first week of implementing this tiered card system, the library only had four adults decide to issue their child a restricted library card.
This also created extra work for the librarians during one of their busiest times of the year because of summer programming. In the first week, staff had to issue around 400 new library cards.
In Pocatello, the Marshall Public Library has taken a different approach and has created a section for books to be relocated to if that becomes necessary, as well as provided a form to make the request.
If the library receives a request for relocation, librarians would replace the actual book with a “dummy book” so that adult patrons could find it and request to receive the actual copy.
“We have a policy, we have a form, we’re in compliance and we aren’t going to go much further than that,” said Eric Suess, director of the Marshall Public Library.
At the Idaho Falls Public Library, administration decided to close off its third floor to anyone with a restricted library card. Robert Wright, the library director, said that this made the floor an adults-only section that an adult can opt their child into.
“For parents who are concerned about their children running into stuff that they don’t think the children are ready (for)… we encourage them to get their child a restricted card,” Wright said.
The third floor already contained the library’s young adult and adult sections, so library staff have not had to move any books. It also already had a tiered card system in place, which went into effect last year.
Although Wright said the majority of patrons have been sympathetic to the library and its staff, they had a patron who was upset that the third floor had become the adults-only section. The patron wanted to file a request for relocation, but the title was already located on the third floor.
“(The staff member) just explained that’s the board’s decision to restrict access to the third floor in accordance with the law. The intent of the law is to limit access of minors to those materials, and the library’s position is that society is always better off to have parents parent their children rather than to have the government parent their children,” Wright said.
In Tolman’s conversations with the library district’s lawyer, they determined that they didn’t have content in any of their libraries that would qualify as obscene material under the law. Although some of their titles contain elements that could be seen as obscene, the titles don’t appeal to the “prurient interest” of children, which is defined as “a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion, which goes substantially beyond customary limits of candor in description or representation of such matters,” in Idaho law.
If any of the district’s libraries received a request for relocation for any of their titles, regardless of whether it meets the law’s standards, they would either have to “move it or to risk a legal battle, which would cost a lot of money that we don’t have,” Tolman said.
These libraries have seen support from their communities as they have had to make a variety of changes to comply with the new law.
On July 1, over a hundred protestors gathered outside Marshall Public Library to protest the new law and support the librarians.
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Tolman said her district has spent time listening to patrons over the years as they curate their collection.
“We’ve been talking to lots of parents and people in the community. We try to gear our collection to meet the interests of the people that we serve,” Tolman said.
As the legislation was reworked and reintroduced over the years, Harral had library patrons come in and offer their support.
“If this happens in our library, you call me and I’ll be down here with picket signs,” Harral recounted a patron saying. “We love the library. We support the library.”