Bethel Public Library, Library Management Team Address:

A case for changing policy in regards to Child Behavior and Supervision and Circulation
Quantity Limitations.
As we reexamine our library policies five years after our last revisions, the youth services staff
asks the library management to consider our proposed changes to some of our policies regarding
children.
Our library is within walking distance of the Bethel Parks & Recreation building and is only a
five-minute drive from all five of our local schools. The Youth Services Department offers a
number of programs for children and teens, and our library policy encourages children to use the
library, whether it is for reading, study, research, quiet play, or attending library programs. While
we offer these services for our children, we feel that our Child Supervision policy does not
match up with how we wish to serve our patrons.
Our current Child Supervision policy states, All children ages 11 and under must be
accompanied and adequately supervised by a responsible person (e.g. an adult or mature
adolescent). While this seems reasonable on the surface, the youth services department feels
that we can change this to children ages seven and under. Most eight year olds are in second or
third grade; at this point in their academic careers they are already writing reports and doing
research projects. When schools let out, many parents are still working, so their children come to
the library to complete homework, to read, or just to pass the time as they wait for their parents.
We also offer programs for children younger than 11 years old in which we do not necessarily
want or expect parents. We propose to change this policy to allow children eight and older into
the library without an accompanying adult. Several other libraries allow children as young as
seven to use the library alone or set no age at all. We feel our community would be best served if
children eight and older were allowed to use the library on their own. We understand that the
idea of unsupervised children may be overwhelming, and we certainly do not want to become a
babysitting service, but we believe that if we all keep our eyes and ears open, we can make this
change work remarkably well.
Our Circulation Policy Quantity Limitations are much stricter for childrens materials. Our
Circulation Policy states, The Library staff and trustees are charged with the responsibility of
providing free and equal access to Library materials and services to all eligible people. As a
library, we strive to give the best service to all of our patrons, but with these quantity limitations,
we are not allowing all of our patrons to have the same library experience.
The current policy restricts childrens materials to three nonfiction titles of the same subject,
three books from the same author or series, three audiobooks, three CD-Roms, three CDs, and
three DVDs. The only adult materials with restrictions are DVDs, with a limit of ten. Our policy
says, It is the parents or guardians and only these who may restrict their children and only
their children from borrowing specific Library materials. Closely monitoring materials young
patrons wish to borrow restricts access in a way counter to this policy. For these reasons, we
wish to change our Quantity Limitations to be equal for children and adults; both adult and
juvenile DVDs will have a limit of ten.
The childrens services policy also restricts holiday books and those on local school required
reading lists. We plan to shorten the loan periods for these books to one week to better
accommodate sharing. We also plan to communicate with local school librarians to obtain
reading lists and project topics for each school year. Instead of placing a checkout limitation on
high-demand books, we would temporarily change them to reference materials in the weeks
leading up to deadlines. Since reference items cannot be removed from the library, this would
give more students access to the material.
At the Bethel Public Library, we strive for confidentiality in what our patrons check out, and we
hope to give our patrons equal access in the library, regardless of age. All patrons should be
allowed to check out whatever they please and we should not expect our Circulation Department
to track each item borrowed by every patron. The ALAs Access for Children and Young
Adults to Nonprint Materials states that we should not be setting minimum age limits in order to
access materials, because this limits library use for minors. Although our policy does not set an
age limit for materials, we have placed strict quantity limitations on most of our childrens
materials. This impedes our patrons library experience, and sends a message that children are
irresponsible and need monitoring. We do not want our child patrons to feel like they are getting
less than our adult patrons. Since our policy states, Children are expected to adhere to the same
standards of conduct as are adults, we believe they are also entitled to the same privileges.
We understand why these age and material limitations were originally put in place, but we feel
that our patrons would be better served if we treated children as equal patrons in the system. We
know that we have given the Library Management Team much to think about, but feel that these
changes would allow us to better serve the youth in our community.
Thank you so much for your consideration.
Respectfully submitted,
Kyndra Cross, Julia Frederick, and Leah Raven
Youth Services Department
December 5, 2013









Bethel Public Library: Proposed Policy Revisions
B. CHILD BEHAVIOR AND SUPERVISION

The Library Board of Directors and staff view service to children as an important part of the
Librarys mission. Children are encouraged to use the Library for reading, study, research, quiet
play, and attending programs.

However, parents, guardians, and caregivers should be mindful that the Library is a public
building open to all individuals, and that unattended children are vulnerable. In order to provide
for the general welfare of all persons using the Library, and in order to provide for the general
safety of children using the Library:
1. All children ages 11 and under must be accompanied and adequately supervised
by a responsible person (e.g. an adult or mature adolescent.)
2. Children 12 years and older may use the Library when unaccompanied by a
responsible adult. However, parents, guardians, or caregivers are expected to be
aware of the opening and closing times of the Library, and to make suitable
arrangements to meet and/or transport their children. Inclement weather, power
failures, and other unforeseen emergencies can and do occur, requiring the
Library to open late or to close early. Children left alone in the Library or on
Library premises could be at risk of danger.
PROPOSED REVISIONS:
! All children ages 7 and under must be accompanied by a responsible caregiver (e.g.
an adult, guardian, or older sibling).
! Children 8 years and older may use the Library when unaccompanied by a
responsible adult.

BETHEL PUBLIC LIBRARY CIRCULATION SERVICES POLICY
SECTION 12: QUANTITY LIMITATIONS
DVD's: No more than 3 children's titles per cardholder at one time. (NOTE: DVD titles
consisting of more than 1 disk count as 1 title.)
Nonfiction books: No more than 3 children's nonfiction books on the same topic per
cardholder at one time, at the discretion of the Children's Services Librarian. No more
than 3 adult or young adult nonfiction books on the same topic per cardholder at one
time, at the discretion of the Adult Services Librarian, whenever such items are widely
required in connection with school assignments or other special purposes.
Children's holiday books: No more than 3 per cardholder at one time during the
appropriate season, at the discretion of the Children 's Services Librarian, based on
demand.
Audio books: No more than 3 children's titles per cardholder at one time.
Books listed on the Bethel school system's required/suggested reading lists: Limits
may be placed on these books at the discretion of the Adult Services and/or the Children's
Services Librarians depending on collection inventory and demand.
Loans, Limits, Renewals and Overdue Fines
Effective April 25, 2011
Material Loan
Period
Limit Per
Patron
# of
Renewals
Overdue Fines
New Books 2 weeks none 2 $.10/Day
Books with reserves 2 weeks none none $.10/Day
Children's fiction 3 weeks none 1 $.05/Day
Children's nonfiction 3 weeks 3 per subject 1 $.05/Day
Children's titles by
same author
3 weeks Three 1 $.05/Day
Children's Series 3 weeks Three 1 $.05/Day
Audiobooks (juvenile) 3 weeks Three 1 $.10/Day
CD-Roms (juvenile) 3 weeks Three 1 $.10/Day
Teen books 3 weeks none 1 $.10/Day
All other books 3 week none 1 $.10/Day
Videos (popular adult
& juvenile)
1 week none none $1.00/Day
Videos (nonfiction) 2 weeks none 1 $1.00/Day
DVDs (popular, adult) 1 week Ten none $1.00/Day
DVDs (popular,
juvenile)
1 week Three none $1.00/Day
DVDs (nonfiction) 2 weeks Ten 1 $1.00/Day
Compact discs 3 weeks none 1 $.10/Day
Compact discs
(juvenile)
3 weeks Three 1 $.10/Day
Audiobooks (cassette &
CD)
3 weeks none 1 $.10/Day
CD-Roms 3 weeks none 1 $.10/Day
Periodicals (Adult) 2 weeks none 1 $.10/Day
Periodicals (Juvenile) 2 weeks none 1 $.10/Day
Museum passes 3 days one none $1.00/Day
Reference books overnight* one none $1.00/per hour beginning with the second
hour the Library is open.
Ebook Readers 2 weeks One None $2.00/Day
*with Department Head
permission


PROPOSED REVISIONS:
! Remove Quantity Limitations to childrens books, CDs, and audiobooks; change
childrens DVD limit to 10.
! Change the loan periods for Childrens Holiday Books and required reading list books to
one week.
! Nonfiction books: In order for all students in our area to have access to materials for
projects, the Bethel Public Library Youth Services Department will communicate with
local schools to anticipate which Nonfiction materials will be needed during the school
year. These materials may be temporarily changed to Reference Materials during the time
leading up to the projects. These materials will not be allowed out of the library during
this time, enabling all patrons equal access.