A Positive Option for Alberta Public Libraries: Stand Up for What You Are
It’s decision time.
The Alberta government is directing you to abandon what has made your public library what it is today – locally governed, with collections based on the needs and interests of your community, local policies, and competent staff to ensure that everyone in your community finds material that is of interest to them.
Specifically, the government is attempting to compel your library to become a censor – identifying materials in your collection that it wants restricted and made inaccessible without explicit parental authorization. Behind this demand is Bill 28, now law, which gives the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Dan Williams, unfettered control over every aspect related to the management, administration, or operation of every public library in the province.
A positive library response would be:
- Begin by telling the government of your and your community’s pride in your library, in the policies your board has adopted, in its commitment to the intellectual freedom of your community, and in the trusted people who staff it.
- Then, in response to the government’s demand that your library produce a list of materials in your collection to be censored by being placed in a restricted area, we encourage you to advise the government that:
- you have no books or other materials in your collection that merit censorship and restriction;
- everything in your library has been carefully chosen in accordance with your local library board’s collection policy and its selection and deselection criteria, which ensures your community’s needs and interests are met; and
- your knowledgeable, dedicated library staff classify and catalogue materials so they are available for age-appropriate audiences and help direct all library users to material that meets their interests and needs.
Remind the government, too, that Alberta’s locally governed, locally administered public libraries have earned the respect of their communities: 82 percent of Albertans trust public libraries to decide what materials should be available and 70 percent of Albertans use public libraries at least a few times a year – an unprecedented level of public confidence in a public institution.
That’s all you need to do now.
If the government objects, ask it to send you a list of titles that it wants your library to restrict, and advise that the library will review those titles in accordance with its community-based policies.
If the government takes any form of action against your library or other libraries for upholding their local board-approved policies and community-based governance, it will be time to turn to the courts to determine if, as it seems, the government’s actions are a violation of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and what remedy the courts will order. Should it come to that, CFE stands ready to help. For now, though, Alberta libraries' extraordinary public trust may be your best protection.