BY DREW DODSON
The Star-News

Policy allows parents to sign waiver for children

Unsupervised children will still be allowed in the Donnelly Public Library come July 1, library trustees were told on Tuesday.

The library announced in May that it would become an “adults only” library in response to a new state law that requires libraries to physically separate adult books from children’s books.

Library Director Sherry Scheline feared that the law, which takes effect July 1, could not be followed in Donnelly due to limited space in the 1,000-square-foot building at 150 E. State St.

However, a patron agreement adopted last month includes a waiver that will still allow children to be in the library without a parent or guardian present, Scheline said.

“After reconsidering, we believe that the third clause on our patron agreement is sufficient for all patrons, not just programming patrons,” Scheline said.

The three clauses on the agreement allows parents or guardians to choose levels of required supervision for their children in the library.

So far the agreement has been signed by about 50 parents, all of whom Scheline said have chosen to allow their children to be unsupervised in the library and waive rights afforded to them by the new law.

Parents can also choose to always require a guardian to be with their child at the library, or to only require a guardian when checking out materials, but not for programming.

Still, Scheline said new rules will need to be implemented at the library to track which children have signed waivers and which do not.

“On Saturday, I had a five-year-old come in here, and he was in here for 15 minutes before a parent showed up,” she said. “I had no idea who the child was and I had no idea who the parents were.”

The library’s liability insurance provider has supported for the waiver so far, but Scheline cautioned that it remains unclear whether it would withstand a legal challenge.

Library trustees authorized spending up to $2,000 to have an attorney review the patron agreement before July 1 and reinforce it as needed.

The new law, known as House Bill 710, requires all libraries in Idaho to separate adult books from children’s books in separate sections.

If a written complaint is filed about a book under the new law, the library must review the book in question and move it to an adult section within 60 days if it contains adult material as defined by the law.

A successful challenge and failure to move the book within 60 days would result in the library receiving a $250 fine. A civil lawsuit could also be brought against the library or its staffers.

The law lists several specific examples of obscene materials, but also broadly defines what is “harmful to minors…as judged by the average person.”

Scheline emphasized that the library is not getting rid of children’s books to comply with the law, which she said was a common misconception following the “adults only” library announcement.

She also reiterated that there is no pornography in the library, but that many books may contain some “adult themes” as defined by the law.

The library’s 13,000-book collection is currently organized into sections for children, young adults and adults, but there is no physical separation between the sections.

National spotlight

The Donnelly library made national headlines last month after announcing that it would become an “adults only” library on July 1 to comply with the new law.

Media outlets across the country picked up the story, and social media ignited with commentary on the decision, including from famous author James Patterson.

“In the ongoing absurdity of campaigns to limit children’s reading freedoms in America, the Donnelly Public Library in Boise will now function more like a liquor store because of ‘anti-porn’ legislation in Idaho,” Patterson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Going forward, kids can only enter accompanied by an adult,” Patterson’s post said. “It’s books, folks. They’re not a controlled substance.”

Meanwhile, Scheline has received nearly two dozen letters containing a total of $4,200 in donations to the library from places as far as Virginia, Alabama, Missouri, Minnesota, and Maryland.

“This is a beautiful testament of people across the United States, standing up for libraries,” she said. “Never in a million years would have I thought that it would become as big as it was.