Reflection on Public Libraries and the Public Forum Doctrine

Post date: May 16, 2013 1:41:06 PM

Chmara, Theresa. "Public Libraries and the Public Forum Doctrine." Intellectual freedom manual. 8th ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 2010. 337-350. Print.

Public Libraries need to have very specific policies when it comes to library access, behavioral rules, access to materials, access to Internet and filtering issues, and access to meeting rooms or display cases. If the policies are not specific enough and a problem arises, the court will not have much of a basis for your argument to stand. That being said, these policies also need to be non-restrictive based on race, gender, age, origin, social class, or income.

There are multiple instances where a library thought that they had the grounds to do something, such as to kick a homeless person out of their library under the condition that their smell was offensive to the general public. If this was not listed in the policy as being a legitimate reason for denying a patron access to the information in which the first amendment guarantees them, then the library will most likely lose it’s case. Just because a ruling worked for one library does not mean that the same ruling will always work, each case is different and the intent behind banning a person or book from the library has to be carefully evaluated. For example, some will let churches have meetings in their public meetings rooms, but not if words such as service, fellowship, worship, or prayer are used to promote it. They can pray and sing while in the room due to their first amendment rights, they just cannot advertise they that they are doing so while in the library’s meeting room.

This means that there is always a possibility for error in writing policy, but it also means that libraries need to look closer at their existing policies and constantly revise or update them to fit the current way that the library is being run. If the policies are not updated and something should happen, then the library could be at legal fault, however minor the infraction may seem. This makes me want to look at the policies for the libraries that I am working for during the summer so that I can perhaps suggest updates or compare them with other small town library policies for future use.