I'm Jennifer Peterson.

There's a learning guide created for today's event that's ideal to use after the session to extend your learning on the topic.

There are a few questions that Robin has identified that help you in considering on your own or in discussion with your team, maybe with your trustees.

The guides can be customized, so know that if you have specific action or steps that you'd like to propose to your team, make the guide work for you.

Again, another opportunity to learn together with others.

I'm so excited to welcome our presenter today.

Robin Newel comes to us as a recently retired executive director at the Emporia Public Library in Kansas.

We have seen her work in many different facets, including as past president of the Kansas Library Association, the Nebraska Library Association, and the Mountain Plains Library Association.

We are so thrilled to have you here to enlighten us with your amazing experience around patron policies.

Welcome.

>> Thank you very much.

I just want to thank WebJunction, especially Jennifer.

She's been great, and the tech support is super.

Thank you for letting me be here today.

I'm going to talk to you about Crafting and Maintaining Effective Patron Policies for Community Success.

Community is prime here because that's what public libraries work in, and we want to make sure that our policies are in line with what our community is going to be supporting.

So this is what we can -- what you guys can expect today.

We're going to have a policy overview.

I'm going to touch very briefly on what I think are the top 10 policies that every public library, no matter if you're a one-person library in a tiny, tiny town or a larger library.

So these -- again, this is my opinion.

There's plenty of policies out there to have besides these top 10.

And then we're going to talk about developing or crafting policies and we'll use a code of conduct policy as an example.

We'll talk about implementation.

We'll talk about how do you manage these policies.

And who manages these policies.

How does that work?

Then we'll talk about the p's, policy, planning, protection, the public, and that last one, which is the big p, politics.

Then we'll have a summary, and then we'll have a few minutes at the end of the hour for questions.

Please type your questions in the chat.

I'd love to hear them.

So what is a policy?

Well, a policy is a plan.

As you know, if it's not written down, if the policy isn't written down on a piece of paper, it doesn't exist.

So you want to make sure that the policy is written.

It's a written plan of what to do in a particular situation that has been agreed to officially by your library staff, by your library board.

So that's very important.

You just can't write a policy down and put it in a book and say, OK, this is our library policy.

You need to make sure that that policy has been talked to and taught and educated throughout your staff, and that it has been signed off by your board.

Because legally, they are responsible for that library policy.

And what's the purpose of a policy?

Like I said, it can't just be up in your brain.

So the purpose of the policy is to protect -- and that's protect you, the library director.

It's to protect you, the staff person.

It's to protect you, the board member, from a myriad of challenges.

So it is also to protect the community as well.

So it just puts a layer of protection around the whole library.

Policies' purpose are to inform people.

They may not know what your policy is, what your staff policy is.

So you're really educating and teaching people through policy crafting, through this policy development and the management and the implementation.

Again, it's not just within the library, but you're educating outside of your library as well as you write these policies and implement them.

The real purpose behind a policy is to give the library director and to give the staff a guide to operation and management.

Now, let me say this.

And I'll probably say it a couple of times.

A written policy is not a procedure.

So the policy is one thing.

How you implement that policy and how that works is another.

So there's a policy manual, and then there's a procedure manual.

The policy manual is something that the board approves and they know the policies.

The procedure manual is something that could change because it's basically for the staff, and has more to do with the manager's input and with staff input as to how those procedures are carried out.

The other thing a policy does is it helps maintain the standards and avoid inconsistencies.

I'll give you an example of this.

We thought at one point it would be a really wonderful idea so that everybody would have to show their library card because I came into a smaller community where I didn't know any of these people.

But the people that worked at the front desk did.

So there was -- nobody showed their library card.

It was like, I'll just look you up on the computer.

It won't be a big deal.

I thought it would be a great idea that you have to have that physical library card to avoid those inconsistencies and to maintain that standard of service, which took longer, because as you well know, if you have to look somebody up on the computer, it takes a minute or two.

You have to verify that that person is that person.

And it sounded like a really great policy.

But it was not a policy that could be implemented in that community.

But that's what policies are for, is to try to maintain standards and avoid inconsistencies.

Policies also help you measure performance by being able to look at the systems that you have.

Are they meeting your objectives?

Are they meeting your mission statement?

Are they providing the customer services that you really want to provide?

And those policies are kind of the backbone of the library as far as what your performance looks like.

Policies protect.

Again, it's that layer of protection.

The first thing you're doing when you think about policies is you're setting clear expectations.

It's written down.

It's approved by the board.

These are our expectations.

Again, these are public-facing policies.

Staff-facing policies are a whole other animal.

But these are setting clear expectations, not just for the way the staff treats the public but for the way the public treats the staff.

You're defining the responsibilities.

Who is responsible for customer services?

Who is responsible for an appeal if you ban someone?

How does that work?

And that's why written policies are so important.

It also helps establish boundaries.

Again, it's that protection mode.

And in the world that we live in today, it is becoming increasingly important that we establish those boundaries and maintain those boundaries.

Again for customer service and for the safety of our staff and for the safety of our community.

Library policies inform and educate.

They help balance -- and it is a balancing act.

And as you may well know, you can write -- you can write policies on a piece of paper and the next day you'll have somebody come in and want to not work within that policy.

So even though you have a policy and a plan, that doesn't mean that it's going to be written in stone and that it will always be followed.

So it's a time to help inform and educate library operations such as collection development.

Code of conduct is probably the biggest inform and educate situation.

Both for the librarian and for the public.

And for the staff.

Finance.

A lot of people outside of libraries don't understand the way that libraries are funded or how the budget comes about or where the money goes, so, again, it's really important to have a financial policy.

And, you know, embezzlement is a thing today in our world, and the finance policy really can help limit those opportunities for people to be tempted.

Personnel.

Again, we talked about personnel policies are inward-facing.

And we're going to talk about outward-facing policies today.

But again, it informs and educates our staff.

The big words right now are diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Many libraries have implemented one of these policies, and I would strongly encourage you to include one of these policies if you haven't already.

And then legal requirements.

And I'll give an example of this in a little while.

But we have policies that you're legally required to have in order to get funding or in order to keep patrons' information secure.

Yeah.

Crafting policies.

Whose job is it anyway?

If you're new to libraries, or if you work in libraries, if you're a library director, I love this story because it really hammers home crafting library policies and who's responsible for it.

So there was an important job to be done, which was writing the policies.

And everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody were on that committee.

Anybody could have done it, but nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was everybody's job.

Everybody thought it anybody could do it, but nobody realized that everybody wouldn't do it.

And the kicker was it ended up that everybody blamed somebody when nobody did what anybody could have done.

And the message for you in that little story is, anyone can write policy.

Anyone can write policy, no matter what size of library you have, large or small.

Anyone can -- you can write policy.

The accountability for the policy is usually through the library director and through the board.

That's the legal accountability.

But there's not any reason why a staff member cannot propose a policy.

So think about how we can best serve our people and think about policies that you might want to propose to your library director or your board.

These are the top 10 policies I include in this slide just so I could put in my humble opinion.

But really these are the top 10 for me, and I'm going to touch very briefly on these because I want to spend most of the time going over the code of conduct, because I know that's part of what you're interested in.

So we're going to skip down.

Number one for me is intellectual freedom.

I'm a first Amendment freedom to read/view in public libraries.

And that's why I'm in a public library and not in a school right now.

It's changed a lot in the last 10 years for schools, and continues to change even here in the south for a public library.

So intellectual freedom policy.

If you have that freedom to read policy and that freedom to view policy, if you haven't read one, I would suggest you go to the American Library Association website and read those policies.

Confidentiality of patron and library records.

I also firmly believe as many librarians do that what I read at the library is nobody's business but my own as an adult.

And my library records, whether I am at the library or not at the library, is nobody's business but my own.

So confidentiality policy is very important.

Internet use.

Everybody's got cell phones nowadays.

They are using the Internet.

It's not like it used to be when they would come to the library and use just the libraries, but we still have many smaller communities where that computer is the only Internet in the community.

So is your Internet filtered?

Is it nonfiltered?

What are your time limits?

What is your policy for adult as opposed to children usage?

Do you have computers in the adult area and the children's area?

And that leads us right into number four, which is the Children's Internet Protection Act.

I included this one because it is not on the list -- not on my list because of the interest in Internet use but if you don't have a CIPA policy in some areas, in some states, you cannot receive federal funding through the erate program.

And a lot of smaller libraries depend on that.

So if you don't have a Children's Internet Protection Act policy, there's plenty of them out there to go and visit and look at.

And I would suggest you go ahead and get one of those.

Collection development.

My best story about collection development goes back, gosh, probably about 2008 or 200 9.

I walked into a library and there was a 27-page collection development policy.

And I was a new director, and I thought, wow, this is amazing.

And I started reading through it, and I thought, boy, nobody's going to read through 27 pages to figure out what to do with collection development.

So we really started looking at that.

We took it down to about four pages.

But it covers material selection and material deselection, which can be a hot topic and a source of challenges sometimes.

And, again, remember that protection mode we talked about.

Well, if your selection development talks about how your material is selected, when you get a challenge, that's the policy to go to.

This is why we chose this material.

This is why we think it should be on our shelves.

And this is how we think it should be on our shelves.

So collection development is a crucial policy.

Gifts, memorials and do nations made it into my top 10 because I have been in other libraries where we have people come in and say, hey, my mom just passed away.

She has this great collection of books, and I just want to give this to the library.

Here you go.

And, you know, I want to give it to the library, but it should be on the library shelves forever.

I have actually been in a library in Nebraska where this had happened probably, I don't know, I want to say 20 years ago now but I'm too old to say that, probably 40 years ago -- where somebody had passed away.

They had a beautiful collection of very old books, and it was gifted to the public library in perpetuity.

And it was a large collection.

I'm talking about maybe, you know, 15, 20 feet by 8 feet tall collection.

And that was space that the library could have used for materials that would check out.

They eventually did -- were able to talk and move some of those materials out of that collection where they found a better home.

But, again, be careful with the gifts, memorials and donation situation because that can cause some hurt feelings in the community.

So the gift, memorials and donations is really about the community.

Like we love to have that art, that big beautiful picture of that eagle that your uncle did, but, again, the expectation is that it will be on the wall in perpetuity is not realistic at this point in time.

And that goes along with the donation of things, whether it's a statue, whether it's artwork, you know, I'm donating this to the library, and I expect it to -- oh, furniture.

We had a situation where someone had donated a beautiful chair and a beautiful table to be in a reading area.

Beautiful leather chair.

Well, that was probably 20 years ago, and the chair was looking pretty bad.

And we decided to go ahead and move that chair out of that corner and put it in another place.

When the family came in and found out that it had been moved, it would have behooved me to have told the family first that we were going to be moving it into another area because they had donated that chair.

That chair, they thought, would be there in perpetuity.

So be careful in writing your policies.

And when you're receiving donations that you don't get caught up in that.

Budget and finance.

I have already touched on that briefly.

Follow the money.

Know where that money is going.

Know who's approving the budget.

Make sure that's in your policy that who signs the checks.

And a lot of times I know in some states it is a legal situation that the president and not the treasurer but the president and the secretary signs the checks, because the treasurer keeps the money.

Having the president and the secretary sign the checks has a degree of separation there.

And, again, the transparency, the policy should be that all transactions are shared as much as possible and probably even more so they should be at all your board meetings.

The staff should have access to the financial reports.

So transparency.

Facilities.

This gets into whose building is it anyway.

Some public libraries in larger communities, you know the library owns it.

It's theirs.

But who services it and does the maintenance on it?

You get into smaller communities where the library is inside the city hall or part of the city hall.

So make sure you have policies on whose building it is, who services it, what happens when the roof gets blown off or it floods.

Is it the library's responsibility?

Does it come out of the library budget?

Or does that come out of the city budget or the county budget?

So those are things that think about when you're writing facilities policies.

Public services.

Circulation and customer service.

They go hand in hand for me as a public librarian.

But yet the customer service part gets into more behavior than the circulation part.

The circulation part is pretty cut and dried.

That's the policy of how long your books go out, how many books you can have out.

The customer service part is more about what happens when somebody wants a library card maybe that they don't live in the area but their mom does.

It's that customer service component of public services.

And then what I want to talk about today, which is code of conduct.

In one word, I could just say behave.

But what I have learned is that word means very different things, not only to individuals but culturally it means very different things.

So when I say to someone behave, and my favorite story is, you know, I had kids jumping on a couch in a youth area, and I looked at them and said, you know, would you jump on your couch at your grandma's house?

And they're like, yeah, she lets us do that all the time.

Well, that didn't work.

And that's the behave part of this.

It's like, it would be easy to just be able to say one word and have it all like be cool.

But unfortunately it's not, and that's why the code of conduct policy sometimes gets a little lengthy.

But we'll cover that in a few minutes here.

So policy again is a way to protect you.

This little squirrel is a reminder to me of one of my best policy moments.

I'm a public library director in a small community of about 25,000.

And one of the staff members comes and says to me, somebody has a baby squirrel at one of the tables.

So I go out and I look and sure enough, this individual who's over 20 has a squirrel that is clinging to his shirt on the front.

And I'm going, you can't have a squirrel in the library.

It's not on a leash.

It's not in a cage.

It's not -- you know, and they're like, well, why not?

It's just a baby.

And all I could think of this whole time is that squirrel getting loose in the library and how long it would take maintenance or the staff to catch it.

But that's where a policy comes into play because our policy is like, you know, obviously this is not a service animal.

And obviously you need to take the baby squirrel outside.

He took the baby squirrel outside, and weeks later I saw him crossing the street with, again, that little squirrel gripping his chest.

But at least he wasn't in the library anymore.

But that's a crazy example of what we see in public libraries probably many times a week.

Now, those are my top 10.

You'll notice there wasn't an animal policy in there.

Because we decided to put the animal policy in the code of conduct.

But diversity, equity, inclusion, yes, you should have that policy.

An animal one, if you want to have a separate policy, absolutely.

Social media policy.

You bet.

Unattended child.

Should have made the top 10, but I had to make some choices.

We see a lot of unattended children, especially in the smaller communities where libraries are day care.

They don't have anyplace to go after school so they come to the library and hang out.

But unattended child can be one of your best friends.

And it's also one of the child's best friends.

Because if that child is being left at a public library, again, it's not necessarily safe.

Now, again, back in the day, back in the day, children were at the library all the time.

And it wasn't seen as a safety issue.

And I will tell you right now, it is a safety issue.

If you would not leave your child at Walmart, if you would not leave your 7-year-old -- let me rephrase that.

If you would not leave your 7-year-old at Walmart, then you would not leave your 7-year-old at the public library.

Not that we don't have great staff, but our staff are not there to necessarily provide child care.

One of the things that's happened in our county is that no child under eighth grade may attend a sporting event without a parent present.

And I thought, well, that's a great step towards making parents responsible for their kids.

And I hope that they're going to do the same thing for public libraries as well because it would stop a lot of the questions.

And, again, a weapon policy.

Depending on whether you're a state that allows carrying or not.

So let's get down to the nitty-gritty, to the crafting of the policy.

So a policy is a fluid -- the actual making of the policy is a fluid ongoing process.

You don't get to sit down on the computer and type it out and then we're done.

Policies are developed with the director, with the library staff, with the board, and with the community.

If it's an outward-facing policy.

Your library board in a perfect world should have a library board policy committee.

Or if you don't have a library board policy committee, you could have a policy wrangler.

And that's what this person is doing with these horses.

He's kind of like the person that gets the first draft from the director, and he wrangles or she wrangles those policies and maybe does some wordSmithing and maybe does some spelling correction and punctuation and then sends it back to the direction.

So if you're library board doesn't have a policy committee, if you can identify one person on your library board that would agree to work with you as a policy wrangler, then that's a good step.

So the next thing you do is you need to craft a draft.

I cannot say enough good things about resources.

And I know Jennifer had mentioned a couple of -- that they were putting things in the chat as far as links.

Use your resources.

Use your state library.

Use your resources.

You do not have to sit down with a blank piece of paper or computer screen and try to figure out how to draft a policy.

Somebody has already done it, and they have probably done it five years ago.

If it's a brand-new policy -- 

one of the newest policies I have seen is the diversity, equity, and inclusion policy.

But even that's been around for a while.

So there is no need to recreate the wheel.

Research the sample policies.

Go to your state libraries.

Talk to your friends.

Talk to your library friends.

Call your other directors.

Talk to other library staff.

They've got policies.

Go and look on their websites.

And then review the positions and policy statements approved by by the Council of American Library.

But I would look at libraries that had awesome customer service, that had challenges but knew how to handle the challenges, the staff knew how to handle the challenges.

And I would go on their website or call the library director and say, hey, can you just send me your policy manual?

Or can you send me this policy?

Can you send me that policy?

And we're librarians.

That's our job.

We love to share information.

And I think I've only been turned down one time, and I can't remember what that was now.

So use your resources.

You do not have to sit down with nothing and start.

Remember when you start writing a policy that these policies are public documents.

These are not pieces of paper that stay in a 3-ring binder underneath the desk or underneath that pile of papers on your desk.

These are public documents that people will look at.

People will see these.

So make sure that you have some kind of standardization with your policy writing.

You want to have a heading, public library, the name of the policy, and you want to have approved by the board and date.

This is very important that you have approved by the board and the date that it was approved.

That will allow you to go back in the board minutes and say, yes, indeed, here it is, we approved this policy.

The board approved this policy.

Use page numbers, and then use consistent text, font, and formatting, all the way through the policies.

So if you started on policy number one with 12-point font, then policy number 10 should have 12-point font.

It sounds restrictive, but it will make it so much easier for the director and it will make it a lot easier on the board members because a lot of board members are teachers, and they really like that consistency, and they really like things to be spelled -- as I do, spelled correctly and that type of thing.

So this may seem like goofiness to you, but it's real.

And somebody's gonna look at that.

So let's talk about crafting a code of conduct policy.

I'm using an example here from the Emporia Public Library code of conduct.

It's on their page.

And we'll just go to the next one.

Now, this particular policy is longer than most because this particular policy is three pages long and it has what is called a preamble.

The preamble talks about why we're writing this code of conduct policy and what it's supposed to do and who it's for.

It says, our library seeks to serve its function as a place of education, information, recreation, and quiet reflection.

And unless you have some rules and boundaries, that can be very difficult.

So you'll see a whole page of this preamble, which also talks about levels of enforcement.

Now, it's one thing to do something small, and it's another thing to, you know, light up a cigarette in a library.

So it's important within your policy -- and this is where it gets touchy with procedure.

But it's important with your policy to know what the enforcement levels are and how those enforcement levels are going to be dealt with.

So I always did like a three strikes and you're out.

If we had an individual who consistently could not follow the rules, this is all documented.

They would get a warning.

And then they would get another warning that if they got a third warning then they would be out.

So use progressive enforcement as much as you can.

And, again, your policies should say certain activities and behaviors.

Not all.

Not all.

I mean, that doesn't mean that if you light a cigarette up in a library you can come back the next day and light another cigarette and test that thing.

It means that smaller behaviors will be subjected to progressive enforcement.

Some of the behaviors will have to be dealt with on a higher level, with immediate suspension and/or permanent ban.

This is hard to do, especially in those smaller communities and especially with, you know, maybe kids that need to be at the library.

And there are other ways to deal with them.

If you have the staff to be able to engage those kids.

If you don't have the library staff to engage those kids, then you have to take other measures.

Again, you're there to provide open access for everyone.

And if you have a bunch of unruly whatevers, then you're not going to be able to have people come into the library and use the library.

They won't want to come use the library.

And I don't want to use just youth, but that's probably the most used example.

So anybody that wants to report conduct can report conduct.

We have different individuals in libraries whether they are staff or not that will come to you and say, you know, Johnny over there or Bill is asleep in the corner again with his shoes off.

And so anybody can report those behaviors, but it's for the staff to go and deal with those behaviors.

It is not the public's part to deal with those behaviors.

Or their friend or their partner.

So the worst of the worst with the code of conduct is, you know, they don't respect the library.

They don't respect the staff.

And unfortunately if you don't respect the library and respect the staff, then you'll probably be banned from the library.

That is a no trespass.

And I would invite you to talk with your police, your sheriff's department, whoever your authority is in that area, and find out what a no trespass looks like.

I have done official no trespass notices for as long as I've been a library director.

And the police have always been really good about working with the library and understanding that we're trying to provide a safe environment for individuals from the community that want to use the library and a safe environment for our library staff that has to come to work every day.

And sometimes deal with behavior that's not becoming.

So a permanent ban.

There are permanent ban letters out there as well.

If you need help with that, give me a holler and we can send those to you as well.

There's also an appeal process, which means that I had an individual who was a young little boy.

He was probably 8.

And he had some bathroom behaviors that we could not deal with anymore at our library.

And so he was banned, which was unfortunate.

But his parents came in and wanted me to -- wanted to appeal that, and the appeal process is to the director first and then if the director will not appeal, then they have to go to the board in my public library.

So make sure that you have that appeal process.

Again, that's where it gets kind ofkinky with policies and procedures but make sure you have that appeal process in that policy.

Again, it's to protect both sides there.

And here is the policy -- again, I just wanted to give you some examples of what that could look like.

Progressive enforcement is for your smaller things.

Disruptive talking, excessive public displays of affection would be progressive enforcement.

Having sex in the library and you're out.

Leaving personal belongings unattended.

Not that big a deal 10 years ago.

Now you need to keep your personal belongings with you at all times because we don't know if somebody's going to steal them or put things in them, that type of thing.

So things that we used to think of as not a big deal could possibly be a big deal nowadays.

Please sit down with your library staff and go over a draft of your code of conduct policy because there is no way you can write every behavior that you do not want to see.

And that's why the preamble says it's not limited to the following, but it includes this.

So you're able to put some things in here.

And if you'll notice down at the prohibited conduct, at the very bottom, it says bringing pets or animals other than service animals necessary for disabilities into the library except as authorized.

We chose to put our service animal policy into the code of conduct policy because these two sheets are posted in our library.

So progressive enforcement is posted.

It's got it there.

And then prohibited conduct is posted and it's got it there.

So people are aware.

They can read these.

If there's a problem, we can say, you know, this is our policy, and this is why, and if that person still needs to talk with somebody and needs member explanation, the staff member is welcome to go up the chain until it comes to my desk.

But it's helpful.

People always don't know what to do.

We used to have big signs that said, no cell phones in the library.

Well, that's just ridiculous nowadays.

So now we just try to say if you're going to have a big conversation with your sister-in-law about the boat trip you took last week, you probably should take that to an area where you can have that conversation without disrupting other people.

So think about what you want to say in your code of conduct policy.

How it needs to be posted is very important.

And where that policy needs to be used.

The second page is immediate suspension and/or permanent ban.

One of the ones I wanted to put in here is threatening language.

I don't put up with any threatening language.

If you're calling my staff names, if you're calling other patrons names, then you're just out.

Again, you're out sometimes for the day.

Depends on what the situation is.

But if you just get really upset and you are out of control, then it could possibly be a situation where we have to call in the authorities.

But you can see intentionally causing a false fire alarm.

Smoking.

And here is a good example of a policy that we drafted it.

It was just smoking.

But then e-cigarettes came in and then vaping came in.

And that's why it's also important to look at these policies as you're going through.

I want to stop for just a minute and say any questions about the top 10 or the prohibited conduct or the -- 

>> Yeah.

There's definitely been lots of great discussion.

I'm loving seeing people sharing their experiences.

So definitely there will be lots to review for folks to explore chat later.

A couple of quick questions.

Definitely the question around what do you put in the code of conduct policy.

Do you put, you know, food, drink, eating, animals in that code of conduct policy?

Someone said that they're looking for code of conduct policy that includes exterior parking lots and grounds.

They have issues with folks who are taking multiple parking spaces to do auto repair or folks gathering for signatures, political signatures or even a sign that wasn't political but looked like a library sign, a sandwich board, a-frame sign.

So in terms of sort of deciding how much you put into one policy versus, you know, what have you seen in your experience?

>> So as far as parking lots, absolutely, you can have a policy for your exterior parking lot.

Exterior parking lots are usually city or can be city-owned and city-maintained, and your city may have an ordinance that says no parking overnight.

We were having problems with individuals who would come and park and sleep all night like at the library.

And they weren't just sleeping.

They were doing other various things as well.

So having an exterior policy, if that property is the library's, is perfectly fine.

And as far as what to put in, again, that's going to depend on your needs and your community.

What was the second part of that, Jennifer, that you asked?

>> Well, sort of, you know, the other piece of it that people are talking about how they name their code of conduct.

You know, some people are saying they call it the library use and behavior policy.

So it's kind of the decision of how much you put in that, the nature of that policy.

So just knowing -- I mean, the other question was, is it possible to have too many policies?

>> Yes, it is possible to have too many policies.

And I think we are up to 21 in Emporia.

And that was before the D.E.I. 

was added.

That was part of the reason we put the animal in the code of conduct policy so we didn't have another policy.

So what you put in the policies is up to you, but you shouldn't have 50 policies.

Because number one, your staff have to implement these.

>> Somebody just said that 

>> Yeah.

You as the library director have to implement these.

And I don't want 50 policies.

I want something that's going to be small enough that my board can handle, and I want something that's going to protect me with as little fluffy words.

I mean, some people get into like -- let's fluff this policy up.

I'm like, no, it should be really to the point and it should be written at a grade level that is appropriate for your community as well.

And that could be seventh grade.

But that's where your education people come in on your board.

They can help you craft a policy that people can understand.

And that they can read.

Because using some of the big words, you have to go back and you have to take those out.

It's an art.

They call it crafting for a reason.

>> Yeah.

Well, and the other thing is sort of how our communities are changing or how our interaction with communities is changing.

Someone mentioned -- and actually this came up recently on serving patients with dementia.

Should your unattended child policy also account for vulnerable adults?

So thinking about how that changes your policy or, you know, somebody was -- a lot of people have been talking about that their state maybe has guidelines around unattended children, but the age may not be clarified.

Somebody said in Pennsylvania, librarians are mandated reporters.

So, you know, how does that impact understanding their age and all of that.

So I would say there are others that -- and I encourage people to look for how libraries are updating to account for some of those new awarenesses that we have.

But, yeah, it's -- there's a lot of moving parts, obviously.

>> It is kind of like a big web.

But it's not a web that I think is unapproachable.

The situation with the dementia, you know, with unattended children and dementia, I have to go back to we had a gentleman that would come into the library barefooted.

And you can't come in here barefooted.

Well, that 3-year-old is barefooted so why can't I be?

So you'll get those kind of challenges.

So I know.

You just never know.

But, yeah, you want to put in what's going to happen most of the time.

If you have an individual who's unattended with dementia, then that needs to be dealt with.

Absolutely.

But, again, that's not necessarily going to fall under your unattended child policy.

That would be under a code of conduct policy where you had an individual that didn't know what to do or how to do.

And I could see that being -- I was just going to look at the policy really quickly here that I have printed larger.

Maybe sleeping on the furniture.

Maybe they're asleep.

How do they know that the person has dementia?

Is it disruptive talking or other noise inconsistent with the intended use of the area?

You know, we all in public library land have individuals that come into our libraries every day that struggle.

And part of the job of library staff is to struggle to meet those people's needs.

So it's pretty much on a case-by-case basis.

I had a gentleman who was O.C.D.

He was elderly, and he would be at the library every night.

And he would stay until we locked the doors and would try the doors after we locked them.

But what I learned was that was part of our library service to him, was allowing him to not stay in the library but stay outside the library and at first he was jerking on the doors and we were like, what's this about?

You have to kind of get to know those patrons as well and their families.

>> And one more quick thing that came up.

Somebody asked, how does your procedure for staff on how to handle especially conduct when the director is not there?

So I can't emphasize enough that the process of both creating, establishing and enforcing does require regular -- I mean, I think it's sort of updated training to address, you know, if you have added something new to a policy because of a particular situation like that, everyone on staff needs to be on the same page.

So definitely getting folks updated and support them in what they need to be able to enforce those.

>> And a policy should never, ever go to the policy wrangler without having first gone to the library staff.

I mean, even if the library director writes the policy, she should be writing with staff input.

So if there was something added to a policy, then the staff should know about that, even before it goes to the board.

Because they are the people that have to implement it.

And if they can't implement it, I want to know about it before it goes to the board and gets approved and then we have to play circles.

So, yeah, it's an interesting conundrum.

>> All right.

Let's continue on.

And we can wrap up with a few more questions later.

>> OK.

Thank you.

So we're still talking about crafting.

So you want to select your -- 

this goes to how many policies should we have.

Well, you have to select the number of policies that are going to work for your community.

And more is not necessarily better.

So you want to select policies and you want to do it without the -- I call them trauma/dramas.

You don't want to have a situation and then write a policy for it and then have another situation and write a policy for it.

You should be writing policies to be preventative measures.

You will definitely have to write some policies.

And the dementia one is one where there could be some drama.

We have had to contact people's parents.

We've had to contact adult people's families and say, do you realize this person who doesn't even live -- the families don't even live in the community anymore.

So we've had to do some of that just out of the goodness of our heart.

And that's where it comes down to where it's a confidentiality situation that the person is in the library, yes.

But if they are not able to maintain a certain standard of behavior, then they are not going to be treated any differently than any other individual in the library.

So select them, and try to think trauma/drama.

You know, those are just two ways.

And another example is having a financial policy that the library director can only spend x amount of dollars on the library credit card.

And which I think is a wonderful policy.

But later I found out that the policy was set with that very small limit because there had been some problems with the library credit card.

So sometimes it is trauma/drama that makes you have to write that policy, but honestly we should have had a financial policy that had been updated to reflect that most of our purchases are online, and most of our purchases need a credit card.

And that limit should have been much larger quite a few years ago.

So you want to tweak.

You have three things to tweak.

You want to make sure -- and this is a, c, e.

You want to be an ace policy person.

You want to make sure that policy is accessible.

That means that there's copies at the desk.

Your policy is online.

Your staff knows the policy, has the policy.

You want to make sure the policy is clear and that the policy is enforceable.

Because if it's not enforceable, what are you going to do?

This is just kind of a summary of things we have talked about before, that the new policy first draft is me as the director.

I write that policy.

I find that policy.

I go out and look for that policy.

And then it goes to the staff for staff input.

Now, if it's a current policy, if we already have that policy, then I'm going to send it to the staff anyway and say, you know what, this policy is three years old.

We need to look at it.

Or this policy is no longer relevant for what we are dealing with.

Like the cell phone situation.

We need to review this and revise it.

And that means it goes to staff first.

So then once the staff -- once the director has it, that draft goes to the board policy or it goes to the policy wrangler, if you have one.

I was lucky enough to have both in two different libraries.

Somebody that knew policy and could write it and understood it, and then a policy committee, which was largely made up of educators who were really good about writing and writing clearly and writing in a level that was easily understood.

So then it goes to the policy committee.

Now, that approved draft comes out of the policy committee or back from the wrangler.

And then it goes back to the director to make sure that it's legal.

And then it goes on the board for the first reading.

I would always suggest policy goes on as a first reading.

You don't ever want to be decide on this today.

You always want to have a first reading because that gives the board an opportunity to say, is this a good idea?

You know, to ask the questions that they need to ask.

And, again, inform and educate.

And then the board approves them or doesn't approve it, if it's not approved it goes back to the library director.

Or back to the wrangler.

And then back to the library director.

But most usually by the time you go through this process, they're approved.

And then it's time to implement.

Educate staff and volunteers.

Post it online.

Post it prominently in the library.

Put it everywhere.

And make sure your staff have paper copies.

So the crafting summary is use your available resources.

Anybody.

Remember my story.

Anybody can write a policy.

Use your resources.

Find what you need.

Tweak it.

Write policies that can be understood by the public, approved by the board, and implemented by staff.

So what's next?

Well, you know how you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

And that's what you do with policies.

You're going to start.

You're going to find your policies.

If you haven't found your policies yet, go find them.

See what the date is on them.

Review them.

How old are they?

I mean, I had policies that were like 10 years old when I walked into a directorship.

What's missing?

What is essential?

And that's that what's essential for your community, for your library.

And then what is desirable.

So you're going to find and review.

This is your job, library director.

Even if you're a library staff person, there's not any reason why you can't look for those policies or help the library director as far as that goes.

And then the next thing is the policy maintenance.

Once you have found your policies and you know when they have started, you're going to review them every three years.

Create a timeline.

Put them on your board agenda calendar.

If you have 24 policies, which is plenty, that's eight policies to review every year.

Your board can do that.

Your board can do that.

So wrapping it up in a little package for you.

Input from the director.

Write clear, concise enforceable policies.

Board approval.

Implement them.

Make them publicly available.

And then maintenance is review regularly.

I cannot say that enough.

Review regularly.

Every three years, you should touch those policies.

Modify them as needed and then prepare for challenges.

Remember, here is your water hose, your fire hose.

Policy, plan, protection, public, and politics.

Because politics are getting in it way more than they have ever been before.

Questions?

I think we're out of time.

>> Yeah, we are at the top of the hour.

There weren't any, substantial questions that came through.

Just more sharing of actual policies.

So definitely lots in there.

I encourage folks to reach out to Robin if you have additional thoughts or questions.

And definitely revisit the event page.

I'll put out any of these other gems that you all have contributed to chat.

Thank you so much.

We love that kind of engagement in our webinars.

We really see it as an opportunity to collect what you're doing and what you're learning as well.

So thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Robin.

Really wonderful work.

>> Absolutely.

>> And best of luck in your retirement.

I have a feeling you're going to keep dipping your toes here in libraries, so we're glad that you're still here.

>> Yeah.

>> Thank you all for joining us today.

To our captioner.

I will send you all an email later today once the recording is posted.

I am also going to send you your certificate.

You don't need to ask for that.

I'll send that out early next week.

And then as you leave, I'm going to send you to a short survey.

If you don't have time right now, and you need to head back to the desk, know that the email will include a link to the survey.

We love your feedback.

There's a survey on the recording page as well.

So if you're watching this as a recording, we really appreciate your feedback.

And it helps us guide our ongoing program.

And we'll share that with Robin as well.

So thank you all so much, everyone.

Have a great rest of your day.

And your week.

Thank you.



	
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