LIBRARY COUNCIL INITIATIVE RJUHSD suggests Library Advisory Committee to amplify ‘community input’ in library processes

BY KATE ROWBERRY krowberry.granitebaytoday@gmail.com

At the April 13 RJUHSD Board of Trustees meeting, Dr. April Moore, the district’s assistant superintendent for education, outlined the district’s suggested Library Advisory Committee with a slideshow.

The proposed Library Advisory Committee would consist of 11 Board-appointed roles, including two librarians, two RJUHSD parents, two student board members and other individuals representing interested parties.

The Board invited both public comment and discussion with the district’s two librarians, Megan Blue and Zenia Treto. Blue said this was the first time the Board had met with librarians in ten years. She noted that ideally the current RJUHSD librarians would have increased professional support by being able to consult with a larger team of district librarians.

“It sounds like if we want to create a committee, maybe we need to hire more credentialed librarians to become that committee. They are the experts; let them set the policy,” GBHS parent Meg Weise said at the Board meeting.

According to the slideshow, the current functioning of district libraries could potentially improve upon factors such as a “lack of process for parent, guardian, and community input” and a “lack of a district plan for school libraries.”

A district library plan, as outlined by RJUHSD Board Policy 6163.1, may be created “in consultation with teacher librarians, classroom teachers, administrators, parents/guardians, and students as appropriate.” Policy 6163.1 explains that a library plan may be used to clarify district library goals and funding as well as “address staffing, facilities, selection and evaluation of materials, the development and maintenance of classroom libraries, prevention of loss or damage of library materials, prioritization of needs, and other related matters.”

Treto told the Gazette that the librar- ians had begun to develop a plan for the libraries’ collection development, but it wasn’t approved at the Board meeting. The Library Advisory Committee as suggested during the meeting would have the ability to help create a library plan for the district, “including materials selection criteria,” per the slideshow.

However, the Library Advisory Committee, if put in place, may not be structured exactly as suggested in the Board meeting and for the time being it will simply remain an option.

“We’re always open to adjust and see what makes sense, but right now, we’re not making plans to implement that certain committee as it was presented, at least,” Moore said.

Blue, who is the librarian over GBHS, said that library advisory committees typically only have the role of being an “objective third party” in the case of book challenges.

“To pass some of those other responsibilities onto a committee like this, in my opinion, is to diminish a little bit our education (as librarians) and our

Experience

and what we go through with developing our collections—the thought, the evaluation that we do, and obviously the education we’ve gone through in terms of curating not just a fiction collection, not just a book that looks pretty, but relevant, solid materials,” Blue said during the Board meeting.

Blue also stated that no books have been removed or banned from the district libraries and that since she started working in the district libraries in Aug. 2004, no books have been challenged.

In Sept. 2022, the Banned Book Week display at GBHS generated controversy due to confusion over its context. Blue explained at the Board meeting that she “neglected” to put up the whole display in a timely manner. Without some of the signage that typically would accompany the display, community members questioned certain titles in the library.

Currently the Administration Regulation 1312.2 form can be filled out if someone would like to challenge instructional materials, which by Board Policy 1312.2 would include library materials. While library materials are those that a student may choose to read, instructional materials are those that are part of the curriculum and incorporated in assignments.

The GBHS Site Council was reviewing the English curriculum during the American Library Association’s 2022 Banned Book Week in September. Because the Banned Book display was also up in the GBHS library in September, there was concurrent discussion about library materials and instructional materials.

“Both of those (circumstances) had books that some community members or parents and family were concerned about, and it got very confusing to them,” Moore said to the Gazette.

Treto said that after backlash over the Banned Book display, the district told librarians to “immediately” remove the display, then stop purchasing new books.

The district has been working with the librarians to develop a new process for the purchase of library books, which has taken time to implement. Instead of purchasing new books, the librarians have primarily been purchasing replacements for books that were lost this year.

“It’s been slowly evolved because we have more pieces to the puzzle right now with the introduction of an advisory committee, having to reinstitute a challenge policy and things like that. So we’ve had to take five steps back before we can take that step forward and start buying more books,” Blue said.

Historically, the district’s librarians have considered factors including student requests, grade level appropriateness, budget and expert reviews when choosing books to purchase.

For instance, the librarians previously received book recommendations through the Junior Library Guild’s subscription boxes. According to Treto, the subscription has begun to expire at some campuses and because the librarians were “told that (they) can’t purchase anything new,” they were unable to renew the subscription.

“I do believe next year we will have a much closer relationship with the district in terms of what they are allowing us to purchase versus what we’re not allowed to purchase,” Blue said. “This year because of the uproar that we’ve had over some of the items, we’ve had to be much more careful with the process so we haven’t been able to make as many purchases.” review and approve the plan.”

Book display creation was able to resume after approximately a month and a half, once a plan for a display approval process had been worked out.

Treto said librarians and media technicians previously had “complete creative control” over what to include in a book display. For the time being, they must vet each book for controversial topics, share an annotated bibliography with the suitable site administrator and meet with them for permission to proceed.

“So far, we’ve only done this for Asian (American) and Pacific Islander Month and it was approved at all sites by our site administrators,”

Treto said. “But it’s very cumbersome.”

According to Moore, earlier in the 2022-23 school year district administration had requested that book displays follow an approval process plan due to concerns about the displays. In Feb. 2023, the librarians were directed to put a hold on making new book displays. These pauses were put in place while the district determined what guiding policies could be created.

“We wanted to have a plan that was approved so we knew what to expect and could provide the appropriate support to librarians as we did that,” Moore said. “After a while, we realized that had not happened. So we needed to put a pause on (book displays) until we could really formally

However, given that a library plan is not a mandated component of library proceedings, RJUHSD may continue to function without one as well.

“I have had some meetings in which I feel very positive moving forward with the district librarians,” Blue said. “Our library media techs are amazing and they handle the day to day operations just phenomenally and we have a great one here (at GBHS) with Mrs. Cobian. And so I’m very optimistic about the future of libraries.”

Board president Pete Constant was not available for public comment at the time of this article’s publishing.