Good Resources

American Library Association, Ohio Revision Codes, & More: 

• American Library Association (ALA) Guidelines for Librarians

• American Library Association (ALA): Challenge Support 

• American Library Association (ALA): Challenged Books & Support

• American Library Association (ALA): Minors Rights

• Ohio Revision Codes

• IRPL Mission, Policies, and Bylaws for Board of Trustees

Regarding books and printed materials that are “harmful to Juveniles":

• It is the library’s policy to have a diverse spread of books available; to not exclude books that adults or staff may find distasteful.

• Libraries are not at fault if a child of their own volition was to read a book deemed “harmful to juveniles”, according to the definition found in 2907.01.

• That said ORC 2907.311 and 2907.31(C)(2) makes it clear that it is a crime to publicly display such content as well knowingly disseminate/check-out said material to juveniles.

• It is clear that the Board of Trustees respects the Ohio Revised Codes and am willing to change policies in order to align with Ohio law.

• It should also be noted that the appendix section of the library’s policies are outdated, most especially the 2004 version of the ALA’s Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights: Free Access to Libraries for Minors. That version states that, “Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents – and only parents – have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children – and only their children – to library resources.” In other words, libraries provide and parents restrict.

• The more current ALA interpretation, 2019, says this, “Libraries and their governing bodies shall ensure that only parents and guardians have the right and the responsibility to determine their children’s—and only their children’s—access to library resources.” In other words, libraries must restrict content that is not defended under the law, such as “harmful to juvenile” content, from juveniles except with the explicit consent  of said juvenile’s legal guardian or parent.

With regards to “sexually explicit programs for minors” such as but not limited to Kaleidoscope, observe the library’s own personnel policy, pg 34-35, 5.91:

2.      Sexual Harassment:

Sexual harassment is a unique form of gender discrimination and is defined as unwelcome

advances, requests for sexual favors and other physical, verbal or visual conduct based on

gender under any of the following circumstances:

o   Submission to the conduct is an explicit or implicit term or condition of employment.

o   Submission to, or rejection of, the conduct is used as the basis of an employment decision.

o   The conduct has the purpose or the effect of interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

Sexual harassment includes, but is not limited to,

o   Unwanted sexual advances, whether they involve physical touching or not;

o   Sexual epithets; jokes; written or oral references to sexual conduct; gossip regarding one’s sex life; comments about an individual’s body; and comments about an individual’s sexual activity, deficiencies, or prowess;

o   Displaying sexually suggestive objects, pictures, or cartoons;

o   Unwelcome leering, whistling, brushing up against the body, sexual gestures, or suggestive or insulting comments;

o   Inquiries into one’s sexual experiences; and

o   Discussion of one’s sexual activities.

With regards to responding to reporting Board of Trustee's Meeting Minutes, Ohio Open Meetings Act (OOMA), Chapter 2, C. Minutes and ORC 101.15(B):

• OOMA overview: The public body must take full and accurate minutes of all meetings and make these meeting minutes available to the public, except in the case of permissible executive sessions. Executive sessions are closed-door sessions… no vote or other decisions on the matter(s) discussed may take place during the executive session.

• OOMA(II)(A)(2) - …Voting by secret ballot contradicts the openness requirement by hiding the decision-making process from public view.

• OOMA(II)(A)(5) - Executive sessions (discussed below in Chapter III), are an exception to the openness requirement; however, public bodies may not vote or take official action in an executive session. 

• OOMA(II)(C)(1) - A public body must keep full and accurate minutes of its meetings. Those minutes are not required to be a verbatim transcript of the proceedings, but must include enough facts and information to permit the public to understand and appreciate the rationale behind the public body’s decisions… At least one court has found that the lack of pre-vote comments reflected by the minutes supported the trial court’s conclusion that the body’s discussion of the pros and cons of the matter at issue must have improperly occurred during executive session.

• OOMA(II)(C)(2) - A public body must promptly prepare, file, and make available its minutes for public inspection. The final version of the official minutes approved by members of the public body is a public record. Note that a draft version of the meeting minutes that the public body circulates for approval is also a public record under the Ohio Public Records Act.

• OOMA (III)(A) - …Finally, a public body may not take any formal action in an executive session; any formal action taken in an executive session is invalid.

• OOMA (III)(C) - A public body may only hold an executive session at a regular or special meeting, and a meeting that includes an executive session must always begin and end in an open session…

• ORC 121.22 mirrors the above language.

• ORC 101.15, regarding committee meeting says such, “The committee, at its next regular or special meeting, shall approve the minutes prepared, filed, and maintained by the secretary, or, if the minutes prepared, filed, and maintained by the secretary require correction before their approval, the committee shall correct and approve the minutes at the next following regular or special meeting. The committee shall make the minutes available for public inspection not later than seven days after the meeting the minutes reflect or not later than the committee's next regular or special meeting, whichever occurs first.”

The May and June minutes are neither full nor accurate:

• They leave out the comments made by the public. As well as the body’s response to the comments.

• They claim that the May minutes were approved even though it was confessed in the July meeting that neither minutes have been approved. Therefore either there was no vote or there was a secret vote done at an executive meeting.

• The minutes were not promptly filed. Minutes must be provided for the general public before the next open meeting to allow the public to provide corrections. Minutes must be provided for the public before approval to allow the public to make corrections.

• Let it be known that citizens can file a lawsuit under the OOMA(IV).

Corrections that can be made:

• Adjust the minutes to include public comments, communicate with the public if you need help filling in the blanks.

• Correct the June minutes by striking out the non-existent vote for May minutes approval. If minutes were approved by executive meeting than null the vote for such violates OOMA. 

• Title all unapproved minutes to include May’s and June’s as “Draft” online.

• Immediately provide future draft minutes online titled “Draft”.

• Begin each public meeting by asking the public if any corrections needs to be made to the drafted minutes of the prior meeting. If none then immediately approve minutes and dive into public comments. If corrections are made then either approve corrected minutes or wait to next meeting approve “corrected draft”, as titled online.

• Recommend utilizing 101.15 as guidance to promptly posting a draft within seven days of the last meeting.

• Once minutes are approved, title as “approved” online. This will benefit the Trustees, streamline their minutes process, incentivise good minutes, and increase public appeal.

• To be unable to provide proper minutes is a sign of incompetence. If that is the case, we can assist you by providing a written and/or emailed log of our personal comments.

With regards to changing their program-related policies via secretive means such as passing documents to read but not to publicly discuss: 

• It appears as if the Board of Trustees are preventing the public from hearing any discussion regarding a serious policy change. 

• It was expressed that this change to policy is related to Kaleidoscope, the catalyst for the general public’s current concerns. 

• Refer to the last sentence of OOMA(II)(C)(1).