Materials Selection/Deselection Policy

The Center Moriches Free Public Library adopts the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights (appended) in regards to how materials selected for the Library’s collection.

Materials are provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community that the Center Moriches Free Public Library serves. Materials are not excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

Selection Process/Criteria

The authority and responsibility for the selection of library materials is delegated to the Library Director and, under his or her directions, to the professional staff members who are qualified for this activity. The general public and staff members may recommend materials for consideration. Final responsibility for selection lies with the Board of Trustees.

Each type of material must be considered in terms of its own excellence and the audience for whom it is intended. No single standard can be applied in all cases. Some materials may be selected primarily in terms of artistic merit, scholarship or value to humanity. Others are selected to satisfy the information, recreational or educational interests of the community the library serves. Staff members involved in the selection of resources will be guided by, but not limited to, the following criteria:

• Educational, historic or social significance
• Favorable reviews found in professional journals
• Recommendations based upon preview and examination by the professional staff
• Reputation and significance of the author, producer or publisher
• Validity, currency and appropriateness of material
• Contribution the material makes to the balance of the collection
• High degree of user appeal
• Quality and variety of format
• Integrity
• Educational goals of the School District
• Availability and accessibility of the same material in the county
• Condition of Material
• Price

Deselection and Disposal

The professional staff keeps the collection vital, useful and within the space available by retaining or replacing essential materials and by removing, on a systematic and continuous basis, those materials that are worn, outdated, of little historical significance or no longer in demand.

In accordance with the Library’s Sustainability mission, items that are discarded from the collection will be offered to other agencies, to the public, recycled or repurposed when possible.

Intellectual Freedom

The Library Board defends the principles of the freedom to read, listen and/or view. No material whose appropriateness has been challenged shall be removed from the library’s collection without completion of the procedures outlined in the Reconsideration of Library Materials Policy.

The responsibility for the reading/viewing/listening by children rests with their parent or legal guardian. The library does not stand in loco parentis. Therefore, selection shall not be inhibited by the possibility that materials may inadvertently come into the possession of children.

The Library Board adopts and declares that it will adhere to and support the Library Bill of Rights (appended).

Library Bill of Rights

The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.

I.        Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II.       Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III.      Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

IV.       Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

V.        A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

VI.       Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

VII.     All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should   advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.

 

Adopted June 19, 1939, by the ALA Council; amended October 14, 1944; June 18, 1948; February 2, 1961; June 27, 1967; January 23, 1980; January 29, 2019.

Inclusion of “age” reaffirmed January 23, 1996.

 

Approved by the Board of Trustees on 2/26/18

Revised on 10/21/24