LibraryLaw Blog

UPDATE: Deaccessioning in New York State

The good news: I assume in reaction to the concern expressed by museums, zoos, and libraries, the bill governing deaccessioning from museums was pulled from the Ways and Means committee's calendar on Tuesday.  I gather that staff from Assemblyman Brodsky's and Senator Serrano's offices have begun discussions with some concerned community representatives.

The bad news: An amended version of the bill is circulating in Albany.  This bill makes it crystal-clear that it does not just cover museum deaccessioning, but would cover deaccessioning from "collecting institutions" - meaning libraries, archives, historical societies, zoos, and private foundations. 

In spirit, the revised bill is acceptable.  It recognizes that there are times when a collecting institution may wish to remove an item from its collections.  Those reasons include:

• The item is inconsistent with the mission of the collecting institution as set forth in its mission statement;
• The item has failed to retain its identity;
• The item is redundant;
• The item's preservation and conservation needs are beyond the capacity of the collecting institution to provide;
• The item is deaccessioned to accomplish refinement of collections as required by and/or stated in its collection management policy;
• It has been established that the item is inauthentic;
• The collecting institution is repatriating the item or returning the item to its rightful owner;
• The collecting institution is returning the item to the donor, or the donor's heirs or assigns, to fulfill donor restrictions relating to the item which the collecting institution is no longer able to meet;
• The item presents a hazard to people or other collection items.

(I might think of a few more, such as the item is missing or lost from the collection, but this is not a bad list.)

The law then says that if the collecting institution wants to deaccession or dispose of the item, it must first offer it for transfer or sale to another institution in New York state.  If no one wants it, it would then be offered to another collecting institution outside of New York. If they don't want it, then it can be sold on the open market.

The bill's proposed methods of implementing its goals are highly problematic.  Here are some issues:

1. It applies to all accessioned materials, and it governs material that you may want to discard.  Good professional practice requires that archives and manuscript repositories accession material upon receipt.  The material is then processed and unwanted material (including trash) is discarded.  This bill would require us to offer our trash to other institutions before we could get rid of it.
2. It may also not allow us to return unwanted material to the donor, even if the deed of gift stipulates this.
3. Proceeds from any sale of the item can only be used to acquire more material and/or for the preservation, protection or care of items in the collection.  The money cannot be used for "traditional and customary operating expenses."  But what about customary operating expenses that also serve to preserve and protect items in the collection?
4. Most troubling for small institutions is that they would have three years to publish a register of all accessioned items in the collection.  They would also have to publish a register of deaccessioned items.  This is a burdensome unfunded mandate.
5. Furthermore, the Board of Regents is required to construct a database that includes all items that a collecting institution wishes to deaccession.  Again, a huge procedural headache.
6. Institutions would also be required to write and publish a broad set of procedures and practices under the rubric of a "collection management policy."  I doubt if even the largest institutions have written procedures for all of the things specified in the bill.

Some will even argue about whether it is ever ok to deaccession material.  (You can follow some of the debates at the Deaccessioning Blog.)  If deaccessioning does occur, let's hope that we do not have to follow the well-meaning but problematic practices of A6959.

ALERT: Action needed in New York State

There is a proposed new law making its way through the New York State legislature that would regulate how museums deaccession items in their collections.  While ostensibly about museums, the law could have a major impact on how libraries function.  All libraries and historical societies in NY should write to the legislation's sponsors and ask that passage be delayed until definitions are clarified.

The bills are A06959 (introduced by Richard L. Brodsky) and its identical counterpart S04584 (introduced by José M. Serrano).  They would govern how museums acquire and dispose of objects.  You can learn more from a hearing on the topic found here.

The proposal has generated some discussion and concern within the museum community (see, for example, the letter from the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar or the posts on the bill in the Art Law blog).  My concern is with its potential impact on libraries and archives.  The problem is that while the bill discusses the issue surrounding collecting in museums, it defines museums so broadly that most libraries and archives would fall under its sway. Here is the definition:

"MUSEUM" means any institution having collecting as a stated purpose in its charter, certificate of incorporation, or other organizing documents, or owning or holding collections, or intending to own or hold collections that is a governmental entity, education corporation, not-for-profit corporation, or charitable trust.

Since almost every library in the state owns or holds collections, for the purposes of the law they would be museums.  The law would sharply limit their ability to dispose of any material (other than returning it to the donor).  Everything the library or archives gets would have to be accessioned before it could be discarded.  And instead of throwing unwanted items into the trash or putting them in the local library book sale, a library would first have to offer the material to other "museums" in New York state and then the rest of the country.  Proceeds from any sale could only be used to support further acquisitions.

Please write to Assemblyman Brodsky and Senator Serrano and ask them delay any further action on this legislation until the definitions are modified to make it clear that libraries, archives, historical societies, and other groups in the state that collect are not subject to these onerous new terms.

Here are the addresses:

Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky
LOB 422
Albany, NY 12248

Sen. José M. Serrano
848 Legislative Office Building
Albany, New York 12247

Hooray - I figured out how to use tags instead of categories in this blog

As I suspected, it's much easier and more flexible.  So if any of you are looking for new posts based on categories, you may not find them. Use the technorati tags at the bottom of a post instead. If it works like I think it will, I'll probably stop using categories altogether.

Update: It looks as if users who click on a technorati tag below will get everyone in the world's posts with those tags. That's useful, but it would be nice to have an option to limit it to this blog, the way flickr does.  Well, there's always the search button in the blog...

Library 101 - Signups now open for four-week online course (with me)

We're taking sign-ups right now for an Infopeople online course on basic library structure and principles such as intellectual freedom, privacy...  For better or worse, you'll have lots of opportunity to interact with me if you sign up - via online discussions, "office hours" etc. It's aimed at new library staff and paraprofessionals without formal library training.

Library 101: What You Need to Know to Provide Good Library Service in the 21st Century (An Infopeople Online Learning Course)  Details here.

January 17, 2006 - Februray 13, 2006 This course is aimed at new library staff and paraprofessionals without formal training in library science. It will answer basic questions about the kinds of fundamental library issues that can quickly turn into hot topics: staff rights and responsibilities, user access and fees for service, book selection and censorship, library funding and outsourcing, and reader privacy. You will receive a basic exposure to library concepts, ethics and principles, with an emphasis on their practical application in real-life situations. For example, how would you respond to parents who ask to see what titles their children have checked out? You'll learn what to do and what not to do and why. Understanding the thinking behind library procedures will help you provide better service and enjoy your work more fully.

For New Jersey library folks

Here are the presentations I gave - I'll keep them here until April 30th...and I will follow up here on this blog with a response to the statues question soon.

Trustee liability

Meeting rooms

Privacy - with Patriot update

Copyright and webpages

p.s. Alice Hoffman read her grandmother's advice which was wonderful - she later said it was in a published anthology. I thought she said the anthology title was FAMILY. Could someone give me the citation? THANKS.

Are library cards more dangerous than credit cards? Are there limits on liability?

Here's a question for readers:

A New York library patron lost her library card and didn't realize it until three weeks later. She reported it lost as soon as she realized it. Meanwhile, someone else had checked out the maximum number of DVDs using her card and didn’t return them.  She estimates that she could be charged upwards of $1000. 

Does anyone know of any legal limitations on a library’s ability to charge a cardholder for items someone else checked out on a lost card in NY (or elsewhere)?  What's your library's policy on patron liability? Do you include it as part of the library application that the user signs?

Is a deputy commissioner at the Chicago Public Library a public official, protected from threats?

Apparently not.  An Illinois Appellate Court ruled in favor of ex-library employee  Edwardo Muniz who had previously been found guilty by the trial court of "threatening a public official."  He had been sentenced to 6 months in the Cook County Jail (time actually served) and 30 months of probation.  The conviction was overturned since the state law against threatening a public official was not written broadly enough to include a deputy library commissioner.

California's new State Librarian Susan Hildreth will address library trustees and advisory boards in Sept - registration will fill up fast

8/17/2004 update: To my surprise, there are still slots available as of today - go ahead and sign up now if you haven't yet. - Mary Minow (I'm the policy analyst for CALTAC)

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California Association of Library and Trustees and Commissioners (CALTAC) invites library trustees and advisory board members to hear Susan Hildreth, State Librarian of California "Creating California Library Success Stories in Turbulent Times" and go walkabout with Joan Frye Williams, consultant and library futurist "Marginalized or Mainstream? --The Library's Place in Community Life"

Friday September 24 and Saturday September 25, 2004

Conference tuition, lodging (Friday night) at the Cerritos Sheraton and conference-sponsored meals (Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast and lunch) will be covered as part of an LSTA grant. The conference will also provide reimbursement for allowable travel costs to and from the conference for those who request it.

YOU MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE - ONLY 100 SEATS (I'd advise registering immediately)

LOCATION: Cerritos Library conference center (Southern California).
HOSTED BY: The clioinstitute (a program of the Cerritos Library)
FUNDED BY: The Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) administered by the California State Librarian