I have some good news and some bad news regarding library legislation proposed here in New Hampshire this year. First, the bad news: a bill that would have prohibited obscene materials in public school libraries (HB324) was vetoed by Governor Kelly Ayotte last month. But here’s the good news: the governor did sign a bill that will permit parents to access their minor children’s library records (HB273). As a result of the governor’s actions, therefore, a variety of inappropriate books will unfortunately remain available in New Hampshire school libraries, but at least parents will be able to find out if their kids have checked these books out!
Now that HB273 has been signed into law, New Hampshire has become one of just a few states that has stood up in opposition to Article VII of the American Library Association’s “Library Bill of Rights,” which states that all people “possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use” regardless of their age. The ALA not only believes that children should have unfettered access to ALL library material; it makes no exception for parents to know what material their children have checked out even though parents are usually financially responsible for these materials.
Kudos to those other states that have previously stood up for the parents’ right to access their children’s library records, including Alabama, Alaska, Florida, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Alabama has one of the strongest laws regarding parental access to library records, mandating that “any parent of a minor child shall have the right to inspect the registration and circulation records of any school or public library that pertain to his or her child.” Similarly, in South Dakota, “Any information contained in public library records may not be released except by court order or upon request of a parent of a child who is under eighteen years of age.” The laws of these two states provided me with a model for the bill I sponsored in New Hampshire last year when I was a state representative.
While I served as a state rep, a job that pays only $100 per year in the “Live Free or Die” state, I also worked as the assistant library director at Raymond’s Dudley-Tucker Library (read about my remarkable experience there in my other Substack article—“The Dudley-Tucker Redemption”). In this position, I had become increasingly frustrated by the law, which prohibited me from telling parents which books their kids had checked out. On almost a daily basis, I had to face awkward situations. For instance, I occasionally had to ask a parent to pay an overdue fine on a book, but, illogically, I was not allowed to disclose the title of the book to that parent. Fellow state rep Mike Drago, a resident of Raymond, frequently visited the town’s library and was equally frustrated that, as a parent, he could not easily find out what material was on his kids’ library accounts. This motivated us to propose a bill – HB1308 — that would remedy this situation. Our bill simply proposed an exception to the law requiring that library records “shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed” (NH RSA 201-D:11), by allowing parents to have access to their minor children’s library records. The original version asserted: “All library records related to a minor’s use of library materials or services shall be available to the parent or guardian of the minor.”
The argument in favor of this bill was based on the following points:
· Who not only pays overdue fines but, as taxpayers, actually pays for library material and provides the funds that libraries need to operate? Parents.
· Who is held financially responsible at most libraries for any lost or damaged materials checked out by minors? Parents!
· Whose “role is to monitor his or her child’s individual reading life” according to the American Library Association? Parents! How can parents possibly fulfill this role if they can’t find out what books their children have checked out?
Although this seemed like a very basic, common-sense idea, when I initially presented it at a committee hearing, I was surprised by the negative response. There was excessive concern over the safety issues that such a law would entail. Hypothetical scenarios were offered that involved abusive parents harming their kids for checking out books like Gender Queer and Lawn Boy. There was also an unwarranted outcry regarding the cost of providing these records, supported by bogus claims that this bill would constitute an “unfunded mandate.” Some who testified at the hearing claimed that having to find old library records would consume staff time, especially in libraries without computers (despite the fact that you could probably count those libraries on one hand). There was also backlash from LGBTQ activists who protested that this violation of privacy had the potential to “out” children because of their choice of reading material.
Following this unexpectedly contentious hearing, the committee sent HB1308 to the House of Representatives with a strong recommendation that it was “inexpedient to legislate” (ITL), which just about ensured that it would be killed. In order to appease critics of the bill, Mike and I proposed a last-minute floor amendment specifying that only custodial parents could request library records and that those records could only be current ones for specific types of items. In the end, however, the bill failed despite our efforts.
Although I did not return to the NH State House this year, Rep. Drago sponsored a similar bill. From the beginning, HB273 specified that only current records for specific types of items needed to be provided (addressing the “unfunded mandate” issue) and that the parent needed to be the “custodial” parent at the same address as the child, satisfying those who feared for children’s safety. The more complicated bill that was recently signed by Governor Ayotte incorporated some other necessary changes:
“All library records related to a minor’s current borrowing of printed library materials and audio-visual materials, such as DVDs and CDs, shall be available to either parent or the legal guardian of the minor when requested by either parent or the legal guardian of the minor, or the parent or legal guardian of the minor whose address matches that on the library account or who is listed on the library account.”
It took only two sessions to get this law, which asserted parental rights, over the finish line. I still have hope for that other bill, HB324, that sought to protect children from obscene material, and that a similar bill will one day be enshrined in law. Until then, parents can at least find out if their kids are checking out inappropriate books. My other hope is that more states follow New Hampshire and those states that have addressed this problem, so that this basic parental right can become the norm rather than the exception.
