BOISE, Idaho — On July 1, over 300 laws were enacted and are now enforceable in Idaho. One of those laws, House Bill 710, or the "Library Bill," left many local librarians feeling vulnerable to outside forces.
"I feel like there are people that will take advantage of this law to try to push their agenda," said Stephanie Jewett, director of Camas County Community Library. "They can come in and require that we submit to whatever they feel is right even though they have never set foot in this library.”
The new Children's School and Library Protection Act opens libraries to civil lawsuits if they don't remove a book someone considers harmful to minors. This means libraries and school districts that didn't already have a formal "materials review process" in place had to come up with one.
While the law has been in effect for over two weeks, some Idaho libraries have revised their reconsideration policies, imposing restrictions on who can challenge their books.
On June 26, the Meridian Library District Board of Trustees approved their "Collection Development Policy" to accommodate Idaho's library law but also give them some protection from frivolous lawsuits. The updated 18-page policy states, "Requests received from individuals or groups who do not use or have access to District materials will not be considered by the District."
"So, part of the law and how we have incorporated it into our policy is that a person must have physical access to the material in order to meet the definitions within the law," said, Nick Grove, director of Meridian Library District. "If you don't have access to the material, you're therefore not an affected party."
Access to the material is defined by anyone who can walk into any of Meridian's four libraries and peruse the collection.
Grove said it considered allowing only those who pay taxes in the Meridian Library District to request the removal of the book, but that would have been too restrictive.
"There's some vagueness to the new law and we wanted to be sure we were compliant with the law and the spirit of the law," he said.
Grove said the policy is compliant with the law.
But, in the Boise School District (BSD), which has 53 libraries, Becca Anderson, BSD governance committee chair, said following the letter of the law allowed for narrowing its focus.
She calls the school library a social hub, a place where student spend their free time and check out books.
"Students still read for pleasure, it might be a misnomer that they don't anymore but they still do they totally do,” Anderson said.
On July 8, BSD's School District Trustees revamped its request for reconsideration policy, which has been in place for more than 30 years, to make clear any request had to come from a parent or guardian of an enrolled student.
"One of the things we talked about was that it was really important to us that a student's ability to read was between them and their parents. We didn't want an outside influence impacting what a parent, a family and their student wanted to read does that make sense," Anderson said.
It created the policy after advice from lawyers, legislative liaisons, and the Idaho School Board Association.
"One of the things that was a recommendation was that limit it to people who were actually patrons of our libraries and someone doesn't walk in off the street to a school library, it's a library for our students and our families," she said. "we want a diverse selection of books because what might not be your student's cup of tea could be something somebody else really likes."
Anderson said the policy complies with the law.
"We were really careful about because you know we're public servants and our first job is to be compliant with what our state wishes," she said. "we do feel like we do have a good avenue for folks if they feel like they do have a concern … so I think we feel pretty confident about the direction we're moving in."