Despite having no quorum and an inability to vote, the unofficial Sept. 12 Fontana Regional Library Board of Trustees meeting included information about recommended changes to book challenges and age changes to safe child policies.
Only four of the nine-member board were present at the meeting.
“We do not have a quorum, so we will be able to discuss issues, but we cannot vote on issues,” said Jackson County board chair Margaret Carton, who said the absences were a mix of vacation and illness.
In front of a packed conference room at the Macon County Public Library, the board heard various updates from Fontana Regional Librarian Tracy Fitzmaurice and other staff members.
Carton said, there was “quite a bit of correspondence” submitted as part of the board’s public comment policy. Carton addressed the “common themes” in some of the comments.
Book appeal policy
Carton defended the board’s actions on a book appeal in July. Diann Catlin had appealed the county librarian’s decision to keep the book “It’s Perfectly Normal,” where it is. Catlin said the board didn’t follow the appeal timeline.
Carton said the decision was done by the bylaws, including an email asking if the board was ready to vote.
“[The email] was not to ask if we had made a decision about the book, rather had we had adequate time to review the book, the appeal and the materials from the library,” Carton said. “The vote was taken after listening to the patron’s statement at the meeting and following procedures outlined in the collection development policy.”
Public comment policy
Carton also talked about the public comment policy, which has been criticized by attendees at library board meetings. Although the board had been allowing spoken comments during the meetings, the FRL bylaws state that comments should be submitted in writing.
“At some point in the past, the FRL deviated from this agenda in violation of our bylaws,” Carton said. “We have always and still welcome public comments, but to adequately address them, we request they come in by noon the Friday before the meeting.”
Revising the circulation policy
The FRL will look at changing its Safe Child Policy, requiring kids aged 9-12 to have a parent or guardian in the building.
Currently kids 8 and under must be supervised in all FRL libraries.
“I looked at a lot of different guidelines from different libraries and most of them are, for reasons of safety, children under the age of 12,” Fitzmaurice said.
The proposed draft policy requires that children under 8 must be “directly supervised.” Children aged 9-12 must have a parent or guardian in the building, but they don’t require direct supervision. Children over 12 may be unattended with the parent/guardian’s permission.
Carton said the policy will be voted on in November.
Fitzmaurice also talked about changing the child’s library card policy systemwide, saying that the Nantahala Library links children’s cards to adult cards so the adults can see what their children check out.
Fitzmaurice researched other systems, some of which allow parents or guardians to put restrictions on what their kids can check out. Many library systems vary on what ages this applies to, ranging from 11-16, with 15 and below being the most common. The consensus of the board was FRL system policy should apply to children 15 and under. Carton said a revised circulation policy including the recommended ages will be up for vote in November.
Collection Development Policy
Carton said in November 2022 the chair formed a committee to revamp the Collection Development Policy. The board approved those changes at its January meeting.
Attorney Lynn Hogue reviewed the policy and suggested some changes. Hogue is a Constitutional Law and First Amendment Law professor emeritus from Georgia State University in Atlanta admitted to the bar in Georgia and North Carolina. He is the pro-bono attorney to the FRL board.
“He’s been following a lot of the issues we’re talking about with policy,” Fitzmaurice said. “He’s also been reviewing all the [book] challenges that FRL has received. His main goal is to make sure that we follow the law and don’t put ourselves in a place to jeopardize having the board sued.”
One change Hogue recommended would be that the board would no longer decide on book challenges related to obscenity. Hogue’s point is that obscenity is a legal term, so those challenges should go to a court of law. Fitzmaurice added that because the FRL doesn’t purchase any materials that by legal definition are obscene, any obscenity-based challenges would not be applicable for the library to decide.
“We are in jeopardy making those decisions as a board,” Fitzmaurice said of obscenity-based book challenges.
The other change would be to streamline the Collection Development Process so the branch or county librarians don’t decide on a book challenge, but that librarians would present challenges to the FRL regional librarian, who makes a recommendation. Then, the FRL Board of Trustees would either approve or disapprove that recommendation. Currently, branch or county librarians decide on the challenge. The decision can then be appealed to the FRL board.
“He would like to see that changed because you are the people who have to make that decision,” Fitzmaurice said. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, we may be sued.”
Another change would be to remove specific deadlines on book challenges, thus the FRL could be more flexible. Fitzmaurice said that would be in case of a challenge of a long book with only one available copy, as recommended by Hogue.
A full vote on these policies is set for November, as is a vote on a board code of ethics.
“There will be a lot of voting in November,” Fitzmaurice said.
Library updates
Most of the meeting consisted of Fitzmaurice giving the director’s report about the 2022-27 long-range plan, telehealth services, renovations at the various libraries, and the digital inclusion plan over the next couple of years. The plan is to add streaming services by January 2026 and a new phone service by June 2026.
After the main part of the “meeting” ended at 5:45 p.m. the FRL board went into closed session. Fitzmaurice said the purpose of the closed session was to discuss a personnel issue.
According to North Carolina Open Meetings Law, to call a closed session requires a motion adopted during an open meeting. Since the FRL board did not have a quorum there could be no motion or vote to go into closed session.
The next FRL Board of Trustees meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. The next Macon County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting will be at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.