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Support Safer ALA Library Bill of Rights Meeting Room Interpretation

Context:

Recently, at the 2018 Annual Conference, the American Library Association (ALA) revised their Meeting Rooms: Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, a guiding document for library policy-making. The revision encouraged libraries to make their meeting rooms available to hate groups, emphasizing the notion that library workers have a moral responsibility to allow anyone, including hate groups, to speak, organize, and recruit within their spaces. Many were rightfully outraged by this change and the attitudes it revealed.

The hashtag #NoHateALA emerged on Twitter, and numerous articles and blog posts were written responding to the decision, including by Councilors themselves who were misled into voting for phrasing with which they disagreed.

Many library activists rose to the occasion and contacted Councilors urging them to vote to rescind this interpretation. This action was successful, and the library interpretation was rescinded in a landslide vote. Following this action, ALA has welcomed feedback from the library field on the phrasing in a future draft of the ALA Bill of Rights Meeting Room Interpretation on a Google Document. Librarians were invited to comment their insights and opinions to the side of the draft, and these comment threads will be taken into consideration in the revision. This process of collecting commentary from librarians concluded on September 14 and the document is now closed.

What You Can Do Right Now:

This section will be updated as we are updated on the methods of engagement in this process.

Contact Your Local Library and Encourage Improvements to Policy

It is important to be familiar with your local library's policies. First thing's first-- go to your library's website and try to find their policies. Some more progressive libraries might have explicit policies pertaining to hate speech, but usually the language you're looking for will primarily be included within the behavioral policies or meeting room policies.

For example, many library meeting room policies include some variation of the phrase

"meeting room use must not disturb/interfere with orderly conduct of the library/a safe and respectful environment"

This sort of policy statement clearly indicates that the provision of meeting room space is subordinate to the broader goals of maintaining a safe library space. This language is important, because it communicates that if someone engages in unsafe and disrespectful behavior, they can lose their right to meeting room access.

However, this language is also vague. When language in policies is too vague, it makes it easy for people to leverage them in unintended or discriminatory ways. One can imagine a situation in which a Black Lives Matter meeting was deemed to be making white patrons or staff feel "unsafe" due to their implicit racial bias. One can imagine a situation in which a feminist group was deemed "disrespectful" to men or an LGBTQIA+ organization's meeting was deemed "threatening" to a patron's religious beliefs. Whenever possible, we must fight for explicit and specific language that can ensure safety without inviting risk of the policy being twisted into a tool for systemic oppression.

Encouraging libraries near you to revise their policies to be specific in what they define as "safe" or "respectful" will usually get you one of two results:

Those responsible for crafting policy will take your thoughts into consideration and you will see a change in their phrasing. Then you will have a Trusted Library that you can add to Safer Library Spaces!
You will discover that the library's use of vague and unspecific phrasing was intentional, and that they do not have a commitment towards the safety of vulnerable community members. Then you will know your library is not a trusted space, and be better informed on what potential threats are possible when entering the building. You can make an educated and informed decision about entering those spaces.

We recommend the following strategy:

Go to your local library's website.
Look for a search bar where you can search the website itself (not the catalog!) and type in "policy" to find their documentation
Scan through the relevant policy document until you find their material relating specifically to keeping library users safe.
Evaluate it for specificity. If it is specific enough that you feel the library is a trusted space, then submit the documents on this site through the form on the bottom of our home page. (Check out our Trusted Libraries Index for examples of specific language.)
If it could use some revision, sit down with some supportive friends and see if you can workshop the policy. Best results come from if you can make your revision an elaboration and explanation of the current policy, rather than a revision that challenges the existing policy. It is much more likely the library staff will be able to consider your revisions if they are in the spirit of the original policy.
Be respectful! When you contact library workers through email or at the information desk, remember that it's an uncommon question and they might need a moment to consult with their supervisor or their own records. Try your best to insist on some avenue to contribute to the conversation on policy. Ask if there is a form to fill out or for the names and contacts of those who work on library policy. Thank the person you speak with for their time even if they can't ultimately help you. Remember: you're on the same side! You're both trying to do your best to help your shared community.
Follow up. Changing policy takes a long time, and if you drop out of the conversation, there's no guarantee you will ever influence phrasing.
Consider recruiting other friends, family, or community members to the cause. You can all contribute suggestions for policy change, and many similar requests coming from different library patrons can make a difference.