Orientation
The library board welcomes new members of the board by providing the information necessary to feel comfortable with their new job and to begin work. Like any new volunteers, trustees will be more productive if they know how the organization functions and what is expected of them.
The library’s board is responsible for providing a planned orientation program for new trustees. The library’s director assists in the orientation of new trustees, including introduction to library’s procedures, departments, and staff. The new trustee should be made aware of how introductory activities will be handled and that responsibility for planning, and implementing the orientation is shared by the board chairperson, board members, and library director.
The specifics will vary with the style of the board and the size or type of library. However, the importance of a written orientation plan cannot be overemphasized.
Orientation Kit and Notebook
A new trustee needs information to review and consult. This should be compiled for new trustees in a binder that includes:
- Annual schedule of board meetings.
- List of board members, names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.
- Bylaws of the board.
- Organizational chart for library, along with staff levels and pay scales.
- Staff lists, titles, responsibilities, locations, and job descriptions.
- All policies of the library and board, including code of ethics, intellectual freedom, personnel, collection development/materials selection, challenged materials, circulation, meeting room use, internet use, and acceptable behavior. Library policy defines the framework of the library’s operation. The library director implements policies set by the board. The board works with the library director to adopt, amend, or retire library policies. This is one of the most important functions of the library board. A library policy is only a policy once it has been approved by the library’s governing board in an open meeting held according to Idaho’s Open Meeting Law, chapter 2, title 74, Idaho Code.
- Strategic plan.
- Most recent annual report of the library, with prior years for comparison.
- Meeting minutes from the preceding 12 months.
- Current budget and fiscal reports.
- History of the library and the goals and objectives of its current strategic plan.
- Local laws, charter, and contracts pertaining to the library.
- Community analyses, such as census figures, economic and occupational trends.
Orientation Meetings
New trustees should meet with the library director to learn how the library is:
- Organized and governed
- Funded and budgeted
- Operated from day to day
- Serving the needs of the community
- Linked to other resources and groups related to the board of trustees
New trustees should meet with trustee representatives to learn about the:
- Type of board (city or district), officers, and committees
- Meeting location, schedule, and operation
- Responsibilities and expectations
- Goals, strategic plans, and projects in progress
- Accomplishments
- Roles of the director-board team
Introductory Board Meeting
It is a good idea to hold the regular board meeting at a slower pace than usual so new library trustees can ask questions and follow the business at hand. It is also important to have experienced board members briefly recap activities and accomplishments of the past year.
After adjournment, it helps to spend time reviewing with the new trustee and to ask for their opinions and observations.
Ongoing discussions and information sessions can be a valuable supplement to the on-the-job training that follows orientation. It pays to show some special attention to new members until they feel comfortable in the role.
Ethics
Public library trustees are accountable for the resources of the library as well as for ensuring that the library provides the best possible service to its community.
For more information, take a look at the Public Library Trustee Ethics Statement from the United for Libraries board.
The Idaho Office of the Attorney General publishes the Idaho Ethics in Government Manual. It contains information for elected and appointed officials concerning conflicts of interest, nepotism, and other ethical issues.
Intellectual Freedom
“The libraries of America are and must ever remain the home of free, inquiring minds. To them our citizens … must be able to turn with clear confidence that there they can freely seek the whole truth, unwarped by fashion and uncompromised by expediency.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
As defined in the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q&A, “intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.”
What is Censorship
“Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons – individuals, groups, or government officials – find objectionable or dangerous. It is no more complicated than someone saying, ‘Don’t let anyone read this book, or buy that magazine, or view that film, because I object to it!'” This is one of multiple definitions of censorship compiled by the Public Broadcasting Service.
The ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has been a leader, educator, and supporter of local efforts to ensure that the library remains “… the home of free, inquiring minds.”
The OIF provides confidential support during censorship challenges to library materials, services, and programs. Anyone can report challenges even if they do not require assistance.
Library Bill of Rights
The following is the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights:
The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.
I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
VI. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.
VII. All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.
You can read more about Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights.
Responding to a Concerned Adult
If your library serves youth, your library’s staff sometimes need to respond to a concerned adult – such as a parent, legal guardian, or board member – about resources and services in the library.
It is always best to be prepared by developing a collection development and management policy that includes procedures for how your library will handle requests for reconsideration of materials before such an occasion occurs. The library director can contact ICfL Public Library Consultant Clay Ritter or the ALA OIF for guidance when developing library policy.
Article V of the Library Bill of Rights includes age as one of the factors that should not affect a patron’s equitable access to the library. The ALA opposes all attempts to restrict access to library services, materials, and facilities based on the age of library users. The “right to use a library” includes free access to, and unrestricted use of, all the services, materials, and facilities the library has to offer. ALA maintains that children and young adults unquestionably possess First Amendment rights, including the right to receive information at the library. Every restriction on access to, and use of, library resources, based solely on the chronological age, educational level, literacy skills, or legal emancipation of users violates Article V.
Each child matures at their own rate. Different children have different backgrounds and interests as well as different reading levels and abilities. Decisions about what materials are suitable for particular children should be made by people who know them best: their parents or legal guardians. While librarians are not authorized to act in place of parents, they are happy to provide suggestions and guidance to parents, legal guardians, and younger library users are any time.
Two additional resources for parents are part of the LiLI Databases provided by the Idaho Commission for Libraries:
- NoveList Plus is a trusted source of reading recommendations for both fiction and nonfiction for all ages. This database offers read-alike recommendations for books, series information, professional reviews, reading lists, award winners, and more.
- NoveList K-8 Plus is a trusted source of recommendations for just-right books for younger readers, resources for teachers and parents, reading lists, award winners, and more.
Movie Ratings and Public Libraries
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is a United States trade association that represents the major Hollywood studios. The MPAA administers a motion picture rating system used in the U.S. to rate the suitability of films’ themes and content for certain audiences. The rating system is voluntary, and ratings have no legal standing. An unrated film is often denoted with NR in the media, although NR is not a formal MPAA rating. Movie theater owners – as private business owners – enforce the MPAA film ratings voluntarily once those ratings have been assigned.
The adoption, enforcement, or endorsement of any of these rating systems by a library violates the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights and may be unconstitutional. The ALA opposes labeling as a means of predisposing people’s attitudes toward library resources. Public libraries, as tax-funded entities, do not discriminate on the basis of origin, age, background, or views. Additionally, the presence of films, books, or other resources in a library does not indicate endorsement of their contents by the library.
You can read more about Labeling and Rating Systems: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.
Challenges to Library Materials
Public library boards should have in place a collection development and maintenance policy that includes a procedure for working with community members who challenge library materials. This is usually included as the last section of that policy. This challenged materials section should include a request for reconsideration of materials form with instructions on how to submit the form and an explanation of how the reconsideration process works.
For privacy reasons (as outlined below), the library board should not be involved in challenges except as part of the appeals process.
The ALA offers a Sample Public Library Request for Reconsideration of Material Form that a library may incorporate into its collection development and maintenance policy.
Patron Privacy Information
Related to Intellectual Freedom and of concern to public library boards is the privacy of patron information required by Idaho Code. According to I.C. § 74-108(4), the following records are exempt from disclosure: “… The records of a library which, when examined alone, or when examined with other public records, would reveal the identity of the library patron checking out, requesting, or using an item from a library.”
Library boards and directors should work with their legal counsel to develop a policy concerning patron privacy that reflects Idaho Code requirement.
Trustee Roles & Governance
There are three types of public library in Idaho that are authorized by Idaho Code:
- City libraries (a city department) – I.C. § 33-2601
- District libraries (independent taxing districts) – I.C. § 33-2701
- School-community libraries (a district library that serves both as public library and school library) – I.C. §33-2737. Since June 30, 1994, new school-community libraries may no longer be established, per I.C. § 33-2737(d).
Each of these libraries has a board of trustees to:
- Establish library policy.
- Set and oversee the library’s operating budget.
- Hire, supervise, evaluate, and work as a team with the library’s director.
- Plan for the library’s growth and direction by creating a strategic plan.
- Ensure that its community is well represented by, and informed about, the library.
- Advocate for the library by communicating with decision makers at the local, state, and national levels.
Roles and Responsibilities
Working as a board of five, the responsibilities of trustees can be divided into four general categories:
Governance
- Ensuring that the board and library’s organization are in compliance with chapter 26 or 27, title 33, of Idaho Code.
- Building a competent board by
- Recruiting board members who can help move the organization forward by utilizing their knowledge, skills, and abilities.
- Providing a planned orientation for new board members.
- Ensuring the board is representative of the community’s current demographic.
- Utilizing the services of your ICfL public library consultant.
- Determining the library’s policies and the board’s policies for its own governance.
- Ensuring the board’s legal and ethical integrity in compliance with the provisions of title 74, Idaho Code, Transparent and Ethical Government
- Monitoring and strengthening the library’s programs and services to ensure continuous oversight and improvement.
- Holding effective and efficient board meeting in compliance with chapter 2, title 74, Idaho Code.
Finance
- Budgeting to carry out the library’s strategic plan.
- Budgeting to support open hours, staffing, and programming.
- Budgeting to support the library’s collection development plan.
- Protecting assets and providing financial oversight as part of the board’s legal responsibilities.
Personnel / Human Resources
- Hiring, supervising, evaluating, and supporting the library director.
- Budgeting for continuing education opportunities for library staff and trustees
Service and Community Relations
- Ensuring effective strategic planning.
- Engaging the community.
- Using their voices as committed and informed champions for the mission of the library and the greater good of all public libraries.
Legal Powers and Duties
In order to fulfill the governance role as a library board member, it is critical that all trustees be aware of their full powers and duties as defined in Idaho Code.
Chapter 26, title 33, Idaho Code, outlines some of the powers and duties of the boards of trustees of city libraries:
- 33-2607. POWERS AND DUTIES OF TRUSTEES
- 33-2608. LIBRARY DIRECTOR – DUTIES – OTHER EMPLOYEES
- 33-2609. ANNUAL APPROPRIATIONS – CONTROL OF EXPENDITURES
- 33-2610. DONATIONS
- 33-2611. REPORTS OF TRUSTEES
- 33-2620. FAILURE TO RETURN BORROWED MATERIAL
Chapter 27, title 33, Idaho Code, outlines some of the powers and duties of the boards of trustees of district libraries:
- 33-2720. POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
- 33-2721. LIBRARY DIRECTOR – DIRECTOR TEAM – EMPLOYEES
- 33-2722. TREASURER – CLERK
- 33-2725. LIBRARY DISTRICT BUDGET – PUBLIC HEARING – NOTICE – ADJUSTMENTS
- 33-2726. FISCAL YEAR – ANNUAL REPORTS – AUDIT
- 33-2727. CONTRACTS – JOINT POWERS AGREEMENTS – PARTICIPATION IN NONPROFIT CORPORATIONS
- 33-2728. BOND ELECTION
- 33-2729. PLANT FACILITIES RESERVE FUND AND LEVY
- 33-2741. PUBLIC LIBRARY – INTERNET USE POLICY REQUIRED
- 33-2620. FAILURE TO RETURN BORROWED MATERIAL
Idaho Code sections 18-1514 and 18-1517B apply to city, district, and school-community libraries. This is the law that requires public libraries to have a collection development policy and a request for consideration form in place, and to cite definitions from the state code.
Idaho Code section 33-2741 applies to city and district libraries. This is the law that requires public libraries to filter public computers that are available to minors.