- Mission
Statement
- Roles Chosen by the
Fairlee Public Library to Meet the Service Needs of Our Community
- Materials
Selection
- Other
Policy
- Fairlee Public Library Policy and Guidelines for Public
Access Computer Use
- Challenged Materials
- Facilities Policy
- Building Fire Exits and Automatic Door Openers Policy
-- Facility Opening & Closing
-
Policy for Use of the Fairlee Public Library Meeting Room
| 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.
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.
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.
Libraries should challenge censorship in the
fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
Libraries should cooperate with all persons
and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free
access to ideas.
A person's right to use a library should not
be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
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.
Adopted June 18, 1948. Amended February 2, 1961, and January
23, 1980, inclusion of "age" reaffirmed January 23, 1996, by the ALA
Council. |
I. Mission
Statement
The Fairlee Public Library will provide a friendly, convenient
atmosphere in which patrons of all ages may enrich their lives through books,
audio-visual materials, and programs, and find neighbors, community connection
and spirit. The Fairlee Public Library will promote the informed exchange of
ideas to help produce greater awareness of and creative solutions for community
issues.
All patrons will gain access to information through a variety of
media, and will learn how to access available information resources so they can
answer their questions efficiently and remain up-to-date in a rapidly changing
sea of information.
All children will find areas and materials suited to their size,
age, and interests, so that they will feel welcome, and so they will develop an
enjoyment of reading and learning. II. Roles Chosen by the Fairlee Public Library to Meet the
Service Needs of Our Community
- COMMONS: A library that provides a COMMONS environment
helps address the need of people to meet and interact with others in their
community and to participate in public discourse about community issues.
- CURRENT TOPICS AND TITLES: A library that provides
CURRENT TOPICS AND TITLES helps fulfill community residents' appetite for
information about popular cultural and social trends and their desire for
satisfying recreational experiences.
- GENERAL INFORMATION: A library that offers GENERAL
INFORMATION helps meet the need for information and answers to questions on a
broad array of topics related to work, school, and personal life.
- LIFELONG LEARNING: A library that provides LIFELONG
LEARNING service helps address the desire for self-directed personal growth and
development opportunities.
As stated previously, the trustees bear in mind the changing
nature of the town and chooses new directions for the library accordingly. We
seek to cooperate actively with the Rivendell School District and other local
Nursery Schools and Home Day Care facilities.
III. Materials Selection
- Responsibility : The Trustees agree with the accepted library
doctrine that selection of materials to be added to the library's collection,
by purchase or by gift, is essentially a responsibility of the Librarian. In
practice, the librarian seeks and values the suggestions of trustees and
patrons in making selections.
- Criteria for materials selection: It is our purpose that all
materials acquired for the library shall be useful to and used by our patrons.
This is the touchstone which is applied first when consideration is being given
to the acquisition of materials.
Additional considerations
:
Non-fiction:
- The reliability of the information contained, to the
extent that we are able to determine this.
- A balancing of viewpoints in material which carries a
large load of opinion or philosophy, to the extent that this is possible.
(Often this is not possible, because of the preponderance of certain views
among the intellectual community, and therefore among those writers who can
easily be published.)
- The organization of the material, and the quality of its
presentation.
Fiction:
- The quality of the material, considered on a comparative
basis : i.e. concessions in stylistic values are necessarily made in selection
of detective novels, light romances, and, in some instances, science
fiction.
- The known preferences of our patrons who depend on us
heavily for their recreational reading.
- The reputation and critical importance of the author,
although we do buy first novels which have received good reviews.
Juveniles:
- For these we put a considerable reliance on advice and
help from the specialists, through the Department of Libraries Materials Review
sessions and through other review sources, in addition to the criteria
mentioned above.
- General considerations:
- Some weight is given to the physical construction and
appearance of the material (when that is known, much of our buying is
sight-unseen) : binding, size of print, illustrations (when present), etc..
Consideration of physical features applies with especial force in the buying of
juvenile materials.
- An attempt is made to have and to keep a respectable number
of classics, so-called classics, and semi-classics. When any of these which is
deemed worthy becomes unusable, we try to get a replacement.
- Materials considered of permanent or long-term worth are
repaired. When they need rebinding we try instead to buy another copy. This
policy has its exceptions -- as, for example, in the case of an historical book
which would be impossible or prohibitively expensive to replace. In this case
the book is rebound.
- Gifts of materials are accepted, with the proviso that the
librarian is free to use them as he/she sees fit. Unrestricted gifts of money
for materials are received gladly. Offers of money for specific materials
purchases are considered on a case-to-case basis.
- Weeding, or culling, is necessarily done frequently, because
of space limitations. We have used and valued the services of the DOL
specialists in this field, and the librarian additionally weeds between visits
from the experts. No hard-and-fast rules apply to this process, such as
copyright date, frequency of use, etc., although the librarian takes all these
into consideration, along with other factors. Materials withdrawn from
circulation which are appropriate (i.e., in good enough condition) are sold,
usually in combination with other materials (donations, etc..), at book sales
sponsored by the library which take place at least annually.
- We do not have any special collections, in the accepted use
of the term. We believe that our resources should be dispersed among many
fields of interest -- in other words, a smattering of many subjects is more
desirable for us than an outstanding collection in one field and blanks in some
others. We buy as many as possible of books of local or area history and
biography, and of books by Vermont and area authors and illustrators.
IV. Other Policy
- The library subscribes to the principles expressed in the
Library Bill of Rights
and the statement on
Freedom to Read. The
librarian does not refuse access to minors to any of the books on the shelves
but does occasionally try to divert interest from what may seem an especially
inappropriate choice. The library also subscribes to the Vermont Board of
Libraries Resolution on
Confidentiality of Library Records adopted December 8, 1981.
- Code of Conduct -- Members of the public are to conduct
themselves at all times in a manner that does not interfere with others and
that is in keeping with the nature of the library's programs and services.
Anyone who displays inappropriate behavior is subject to removal from the
library and/or restriction of library privileges. Behavior becomes unacceptable
when it impinges on the rights of others, when it could result in injury to
oneself or others, or when it could result in damage to the building or
equipment. The judgment of the librarian and/or library staff shall determine
what is inappropriate behavior. If anyone refuses to leave the library or the
building when asked, the police will be called and, if necessary, the offender
will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Appeals may be brought to the
Library Board of Trustees if the action taken by the library staff is deemed
unjust by the patron.
| Freedom to Read
The freedom to read is guaranteed by the Constitution. Those
with faith in free people will stand firm on these constitutional guarantees of
essential rights and will exercise the responsibilities that accompany these
rights. We therefore affirm these propositions:
- It is in the public interest for publishers and
librarians to make available the widest diversity of views and expressions,
including those which are unorthodox or unpopular with the majority.
- Publishers, librarians and booksellers do not need to
endorse every idea or presentation contained in the books they make available.
It would conflict with the public interest for them to establish their own
political, moral or aesthetic views as a standard for determining what books
should be published or circulated.
- It is contrary to the public interest for publishers or
librarians to determine the acceptability of a book on the basis of the
personal history or political affiliations of the author.
- There is no place in our society for efforts to coerce
the taste of others, to confine adults to the reading matter deemed suitable
for adolescents, or to inhibit the efforts of writers to achieve artistic
expression.
- It is not in the public interest to force a reader to
accept with any book the prejudgment of a label characterizing the book or
author as subversive or dangerous.
- It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians, as
guardians of the people's freedom to read, to contest encroachments upon that
freedom by individuals or groups seeking to impose their own standard or tastes
upon the community at large.
- It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians to
give full meaning to the freedom to read by providing books that enrich the
quality-and diversity of thought and expression. By the exercise of this
affirmative responsibility, they can demonstrate that the answer to a bad book
is a good one, the answer to a bad idea is a good one.
Adopted June 25, 1953; revised January 28, 1972, January 1
6, 1991, by the American Library Association Council and the Association of
American Publishers. |
| Resolution on
Confidentiality of Library Records
Vermont Statute 1 V.S.A. § 317(b)(19)
insures the confidentiality of records identifying the names of library users
and what they borrow. (enacted 1989) The Vermont Board of Libraries passed a
policy in December, 1981, requiring that the circulation records and others
identifying names of users be "strictly confidential." The 1986 and 1993
Minimum Standards for Vermont Public Libraries expect libraries to have
policies addressing confidentiality. |
Library Policies - Page 1 ·
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