Library Services
We're going to change topics a little bit. We're finished with the collections portion of it, and we're going to move in more toward library services and buildings and locations.
Meeting Rooms
One of the things that plagues public libraries, perhaps more than schools, although academic libraries as well get this, is how to make good use of the meeting and exhibition spaces that they have available in their location or under their control.
The Library Bill of Rights has something to say about this, about "equitable basis" for use, and in many cases, library meeting rooms,and public library meeting rooms, may be designated as "limited public forums" or other specific legal terms that impose requirements on what the library may or may not do with the space that they have, if they choose to make it available to the public. [Library Bill of Rights VI]
I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of the new ALA Code of Ethics Principle, because this is also another space where the idea of "recognizing and dismantling systemic biases," "confront[ing] inequity," and other things mentioned in that principle may run face-first into some of the other pronouncements, whether as part of the Bill of Rights, or as legal obligations that the library may have. [ALA Code of Ethics IX]
Several groups, in fact, that are fairly hostile to library missions often make it a point to book library meeting rooms and spaces so they can put forth their message. Brave Books, or some of the various groups who like to use Seattle Public Library's meeting room for trans-exclusionary radical feminism, or other similar messages.
Our question here is:
- Understanding, that most libraries are prohibited from telling someone that they're not fond of to take a hike, for whatever reasons may be in place for that:
- How do you, as a library community, communicate to your users that while you can't necessarily stop the thing that is going on, you don't approve of it, you have no interest in it, and you want your communities to understand that this doesn't represent you?
- How do we uphold those new Principle options when we're working with a limited toolkit, often where the things that are imposed on the library are actual, literal, legal requirements? How do we get there from here?
[Gavin:] You want to go first, Robin?
[Robin:] Sure. I don't deal with this at all, actually, but I went asking, and one of the policies that I found that I thought was very interesting was from La Grange Public Library in Illinois. And what I like about their Reservable Spaces Policy is that they tightened it up a lot, just like we tightened up our Request for Reconsideration, once the banned books thing started. Everyone went back to look at their policy and thought, "You could drive a truck through this!" Same thing with reservable spaces, and one of the things that I love, is that not only are reservable spaces only for cardholders, that cardholder has to stay for the entire program. You can't just have them request a room, and then not even show up. If they were doing it for a national group, the policy says you have to be there, you are the one that's responsible for that group.
The other thing that I like, is that they say on every piece of promo material, you have to put this statement: The La Grange Public Library provides meeting room space as a community service. The Library neither sponsors nor endorses this event nor the participating individual(s) or organization(s).
That is a requirement on every piece of promo, every radio ad, every everything they do to promote that program. They are letting everybody know, good or bad, it could be a program they love, doesn't matter, everybody has to do this. They are distancing themselves from anything that is not specifically library-sponsored.
[Gavin:] And that's really where it, you know, that is where we can really thread that needle. Because we do need to make sure, especially if you're in the public library sphere, which I am not, if people can get rooms to meet, people can get rooms to meet and we can't forbid them from meeting based on our ideas or beliefs. But we can set up policies about what the expectations are, and they need to be reasonable, and they need to apply to everyone, and they can't be positional-based. Those ideas coming out of that library, you said La Grange, was it?
[Robin:] La Grange, mm-hmm.
[Gavin:] Those are great, I think. Having that kind of thing, because, again, as long as we make it very clear, "Look, these people are meeting here. They're using the library space because it's a library and you can use that space. We don't have anything to do with their opinions." Making that line clear, I think, is how we address this.
[Alex:] All right, thank you. It's--hmm--[laughs]--I'm still thinking about the La Grange statement and things on that, and going, "Actually, that's brilliant."
[Gavin:] It really is!
[Alex:] To make it a condition of your usage that they have to, essentially, put your disclaimer on everything, that's not a solution that I would have conceived of, so kudos to them for figuring that out.
Counter-Programming Efforts
The other part of it, a lot of the time, especially when Seattle gets in the news about something, a lot of the community groups that are saying, "They're hosting thse people," they're asking the library to put on programming or counter-programming, essentially,that says, "Yes, we understand that you can't stop this groupfrom being present, but it would be nice, or a good sign of showing your support for the community that if, the night that they have it, the day before is full of queer-friendly programming or other sorts of things for that." Does that sound like a good idea, a risky idea, could be both?
[Gavin:] I mean, I think, first of all, libraries should be making sure we're doing outreach to groups to bring them in. Having some of those queer-friendly groups having programming, and making sure that they know they can have this space. There's nothing wrong with that. That's working with your relationships and outreach, and following these ideals of breaking down injustice and breaking down barriers, right, rather than reinforcing them. By doing so, you know, it becomes a partnership. While still just making sure they know "This is your space, you can do--well, it's our space, we're letting you use this space to do your program." I think that can work really well.
I don't think it's necessarily wrong to...in fact, morally and ethically, I definitely think it's right to do this. I think that there could potentially be some legal questions raised, if every time a certain organization did something, the library did programming specifically to counter at the same time, or right around there. That might get a little into some gray areas that would need to be challenged somewhere, and I wouldn't want to see that happen. In my mind, it would be safer to make sure that it's through that outreach idea.
[Robin:] Well, and here's the thing. We are reactive. We want to make sure that people know that they're welcome. We should be doing that all the time, not just when this counter-group is here, but it was last month for 12 days and next month for 15 days, you know, all the time. So that when this happens, they already have a relationship with the library and they know this is not a thing that they're doing because they want to, but that I know that I have a space here as well.
[Gavin:] Yeah.
[Robin:] If it was me, I might little displays up, [laughing]
[Gavin:] Sure, sure.
[Robin:] that were counter, just highlighting my collection, nothing big. I want you to come in and see what we have.
[Alex:] All right, thank you. I wasn't entirely sure about where those gray areas might lie, but I know that some of those requests were more about the library as an entity acting, rather than just, "Ah, and you also can use the meeting room." Thank you for your input on that.