If a child is genuinely in danger, there are processes in place for anyone
with knowledge of that danger to report it to the authorities. Short of
that, parents have the right to raise their child as they see fit. You
have the right to search your child's room (the Fourth Amendment being the
closet thing to a right of privacy in the Bill of Rights), so don't you
have a right to know what books your child is reading (and which, maybe,
he is keeping in his school locker and reading during lunch and study
hall)? Your child doesn't have full First Amendment rights either, so what
other legal theories can be used to defend a right for minors to keep
their library records confidential from their parents?
Here's a hypothetical I haven't seen: wouldn't you want to know if your
child had checked out "The Turner Diaries"? -
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Turner_Diaries.asp
It is not a librarian's duty to rat out the kid, but if a parent is
curious, they should be able to know what their child has checked out
recently. Or should we defend a kid's right to "explore his inner
Neo-Nazi" free from parental oversight?
Brian Huddleston bhuddle@loyno.edu
Senior Reference Librarian http://www.loyno.edu/~bhuddle
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Office Phone: 1-504-861-5486 Office Fax: 1-504-861-5895
On Mon, 8 Sep 2008, Anderson, Karen wrote:
> And sometimes telling a parent what books a child has checked out could
> be dangerous to the child. Not all parents are loving and understanding.
> Isn't that one reason that libraries generally preserve the
> confidentiality of minors as well as adults?
>
> Karen Anderson
> Information Specialist
> Quarles & Brady
> Phoenix
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
> Behalf Of MBARR
> Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2008 11:13 AM
> To: librarycom434@aol.com; law-lib@ucdavis.edu
> Subject: [LAW-LIB:56597] RE: Sarah Palin and Libraries -Sometimes a Book
> is Just A BOOK
>
>
> And sometimes a child may have a book on suicide because there is a
> school assignment on that topic. At our public library dozens of teens
> check out books on STDs, but I am not concerned about an epidemic of
> sexually transmitted diseases in our service area. The students have to
> write a paper for health class on STDs, and other assignments include
> suicide, drug abuse, sexual abuse, mental illness, etc. The high school
> students have to write a paper about Greek mythology, so reading books
> about mythology doesn't mean they are about to turn pagan.
>
> "Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient
> premises."
> Samuel Butler
> (www.motivational-inspirational-corner.com/powerup2.html?id=452&startrow
> =62)
>
> Melissa Barr
> Legal Resources Specialist
> Cuyahoga County Public Library
> 5225 Library Lane
> Maple Heights, OH 44137-1291
> tel. 216-475-5000
> fax 216-587-7284
> mbarr@cuyahogalibrary.org
> The opinions expressed herein are mine and not that of my employer.
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
> Behalf Of librarycom434@aol.com
> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 5:19 PM
> To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
> Subject: [LAW-LIB:56547] RE: Sarah Palin and Libraries
>
>
> If you find a book on suicide in your child's room that came from the
> library, I really don't think Nanne's point was that the library was
> CONSPIRING to deprive your child life, nor to blame the library. Simply
> that, as a parent, if I found a book like that in my child's room, I'd
> want to know what else they were reading...books on depression, drug
> abuse, suicide, you get the point. That way the problem can be handled -
> sometimes it takes such an incident as finding a book in your kid's room
> to find out that they may need professional help. It doesn't matter how
> attentive parents are, sometimes they are the last to know.
>
> My 2 cents.
>
> Janne
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gaunce, Charles <cgaunce@utep.edu>
> To: Law-lib <law-lib@ucdavis.edu>
> Sent: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 2:58 pm
> Subject: [LAW-LIB:56543] RE: Sarah Palin and Libraries
>
>
> Just out of curiosity, if you find a book on suicide in your teenager's
> room, why do you start to suspect the public library is involved in a
> conspiracy to deprive your child of his/her life? Shouldn't you try
> some other approach, such as determining if your child needs
> professional help and, if so, getting that help? Oh, right - the health
> care system is so broken that most families cannot afford unscheduled
> medical expenses. Never mind. Continue blaming someone else.
>
> Chas. Gaunce
> Law Librarian
> University of Texas at El Paso
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
> Behalf Of Frye, Nanna
> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 2:42 PM
> To: Library; law-lib@ucdavis.edu
> Subject: [LAW-LIB:56539] RE: Sarah Palin and Libraries
>
> Ah, but you did inject partisan politics into it, Paula, by the
> manner in which you related these facts. Is anyone in doubt as to your
> position on Sarah Palin after reading your posting? You certainly did
> not supply both sides of the story. Reasonable minds could differ on
> the legislation you mentioned below on whether parents could learn about
> the books their children are borrowing from a library. If your teenage
> child has been moody and you discover a library book on suicide in the
> teenager's room, shouldn't you be able to find out if the child had
> borrowed other books on suicide? Many would say "yes." Was the
> censoring a blanket act that applied to adults and children or just to
> children? Are we talking about literary books or titillating junk
> novellas that Palin wanted to censor? Again, we don't have both sides
> of the story. After many, many years of working for a court, it is very
> rare when there are not two sides to a story.
>
> I will reserve judgment until I have ALL of the facts. I would
> prefer that we avoid political postings on law-lib about the
> presidential election even if they do allegedly deal with "library
> topics."
> Nanna Frye, Law Librarian
> Court of Appeal
> San Diego, CA
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
> Behalf Of Library
> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 10:54 AM
> To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
> Subject: [LAW-LIB:56536] Sarah Palin and Libraries
> I know this isn't the place for partisan politics and I'm not going to
> discuss what I think of Sarah Palin's positions on abortion or foreign
> policy or whether polar bears belong on the Endangered Species Act. But
> she did try to censor books in the Wasilla Public Library and she did
> try to fire the librarian for not agreeing to do so. And she did support
> a bill in the legislature that would have forced librarians to tell
> parents what books their children had checked out of the library.
> I thought, as librarians, you might want to know her position on
> libraries and censorship.
> There is a well documented anti-Palin librarian's web site that
> discusses this. issues:http://librariansagainstpalin.wordpress.com/
> Paula Lichtenberg, Librarian
> Keker & Van Nest LLP, San Francisco
>
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