AUGUSTA — Maine State Library staff members have spent months revising the patron behavior policy used by Maine’s public libraries, and the Maine Library Commission reviewed proposed changes Monday intended to give libraries more authority to address disruptive behavior.
State Librarian Lori Stockman said the State Police, the Capitol Police and the Office of the Maine Attorney General have reviewed the draft. The policy outlines expectations for responsible patron conduct and defines unacceptable behavior, including using tobacco or marijuana products, destroying or stealing library property and physically harming others.
Most Maine libraries already follow similar rules designed to protect the rights and safety of patrons, volunteers and staff members and to safeguard library materials and buildings. The draft retains most of those existing provisions.
During the meeting, Krystie Wilfong, associate college librarian at Bates College in Lewiston and the commission’s representative for small college libraries, pointed to a section requiring children to be accompanied by a responsible adult or guardian. She asked why the draft removed the current policy’s definition of a child as someone younger than 12.
Stockman said the omission was an oversight and that the age will be restored in the next revision.
Commissioners said the policy must clearly define the age at which children may be in a library without an adult.
Commissioner Sarah Moore, who is the executive director of the Portland Public Library, said parents have to understand that “we’re not a guardian, we’re not responsible for supervising children.”
“As long as the minor can follow the rules of conduct, they’re fine,” she said, “but otherwise they need to be accompanied by a parent or other responsible party.”
Commissioners also discussed expanding language about unattended children to address a growing issue: unattended adults.
Vice Chair Heidi Grimm, director of Merrill Memorial Library in Yarmouth, said some caregivers are informally using libraries as drop‑off adult day care sites. She said staff members are not equipped to supervise adults who require care, just as they cannot supervise children.
Another issue commissioners examined in detail was the rise in leaflets and pamphlets being inserted into books.
Commissioner Heather Perkinson of Brunswick, who represents the public on the commission, said she has seen and heard reports of people placing materials in books that amount to sermonizing or proselytizing. She asked whether commissioners would consider adding language to ban inserting materials into books.
Stockman said she had not been aware of the problem, but Grimm said it is happening in Yarmouth and at nearby libraries, where people are placing what she described as “hostile political messages” in books and “leafleting our books continuously.” She held up a fistful of pamphlets removed from books in recent weeks and said staff members are “finding political literature in books pretty regularly here.”
Commissioner Wynter Giddings, director of the Freeport Community Library, also supported adding language to the policy to ban leafleting, which she said has become a significant problem in libraries.
“Things are being put into books, or things are being stuck under computer keyboards, or left in restrooms,” she said. “Some of the stuff we’re finding is extremely disturbing and upsetting to people.”
She acknowledged that leafleting “is hard to prevent because people can be pretty sneaky about it, but I think it’s worth having something in the policy.”
Stockman asked Grimm whether she had suggested language to add, and Grimm said she would draft something.
Another concern raised by Commissioner Ben Treat, director of the Bangor Public Library, was people passing petitions in libraries for signatures.
“I think that’s fairly disruptive in the library space, but I can imagine as a state building you have to allow people asking other people in the library to sign a petition” as a potentially protected activity, he said.
He asked that the policy clearly state whether petition gathering is allowed.
Maine State Library staff members plan to revise the draft to include language addressing unattended adults, set 12 as the age at which a child may be in a library without an adult and add bans on petition signature gathering and leaving pamphlets in books or elsewhere in libraries.
The revised draft is expected to come back to the commission for review at its next regular meeting in June.
Work advances on statewide standards
The commission continued its work on drafting new library standards, a project restarted earlier this year after libraries pushed back on portions of a previous draft released late last year.
In April, commissioners asked Stockman to get answers to four questions that arose during their discussion of the standards, including whether the document needs to explicitly define building safety requirements and Americans with Disabilities Act obligations.
Stockman said she consulted with Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster, who advised that the “Maine Library Commission does not need to repeat legal obligations that already exist through other entities.”
The second question was whether the standards must include a specific date for libraries to submit the annual surveys required by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, or IMLS, to Maine State Library staff members. The draft now uses an April 1 deadline.
Stockman said that having a firm reporting date helps state library staff members complete the work they must do to meet their own IMLS deadline, so she encouraged commissioners to keep the April 1 requirement.
The third question was whether the policy should state that any required professional development must be completed on paid time, an issue Stockman also discussed with Forster. The assistant attorney general advised that the commission may include language specifying that “if the employee is compensated by the library then professional development can be completed on the employee’s paid work time.”
That clarification applies only to paid staff members, not to volunteers or library trustees.
The last question Stockman was asked to research was whether changes to state statutes that contain library‑related definitions would automatically be reflected in the new standards.
The answer was no — language in both places would have to change. Stockman explained that if state law updates its wording, the commission would need to go through the rulemaking process to align the standards with the statute.
Commissioners also discussed what the policy should require for professional development, both in terms of how to define that work and how many hours should be required.
Marijke Visser, director of library development for the Maine State Library, researched how other states handle this requirement and found that about half require some form of professional development, though the specifics vary state to state and between private and government‑run libraries.
She said that in nearly all cases, a professional development requirement is tied to some form of state aid.
Visser also said that as she reviewed how different states approach the issue, the underlying intention was consistent: “When you walk into a library wherever you are and in whichever state you are you’re going to receive quality library service.”
Last month, commissioners discussed whether the suggested requirement of four hours of professional development was adequate for library directors, and whether trustees should also be required to complete this training, but they did not reach consensus.
Some commissioners, including Giddings and Sarah Moore, said they favored requiring more hours. The conversation ranged from the original four‑hour proposal to as many as 12 hours.
“It’s important to have professional development in standards to signal that it is something we care about, that this is a profession and it’s important to stay relevant,” Moore said.
Wilfong and Commissioner Andie DiBiase, director of the Carrabassett Valley Public Library, both said they would like to hear more from the community and from small libraries on this topic. DiBiase added that she did not think four hours was too much to ask.
Chairman Bryce Cundick, director of Mantor Library at the University of Maine at Farmington, said he appreciated the desire for additional input, but noted that the rulemaking process will give the public, including directors at small libraries, an opportunity to weigh in.
Commissioners also discussed creating a tiered system in which smaller libraries, including some run by volunteer staff members, might be held to fewer required hours of professional development, while larger urban libraries could be required to complete more.
They also talked about how the Maine State Library might track whether the professional development requirement is met, since completion would be self‑reported. Commissioners generally agreed that most library directors are likely to fulfill the hours as required.
The meeting, which was scheduled to begin with a public comment session, got off to a rocky start because of an incorrect link on the agenda. After a corrected link was posted, commissioners opened the floor for public comment several times.
Several librarians and library patrons urged commissioners to provide greater transparency in the process and to show more willingness to listen to stakeholders while drafting the rules, rather than waiting for the formal rulemaking process to gather input.
Sarah Redfield, a lawyer who lives in York, has been working with an ad hoc group of library directors and patrons and last month presented the Maine Library Commission, members of the Maine Library Advisory Council, Maine InfoNet and others with an alternative draft proposal.
In his reply acknowledging receipt, Cundick told Redfield that commissioners appreciated the time and thought that went into the alternative draft, but said the commission is bound to the rulemaking process under the Maine Administrative Procedure Act and can only accept comments after it has developed and announced proposed rules for the Maine Regional Library System.
“Introducing an alternative draft rule by your ad hoc group disrupts the integrity of the public comment period by giving precedence to the ad hoc group’s views (contained in the draft) before the official public comment period is open for all,” Cundick wrote, asking that the group wait to submit further comments until the official comment period begins.
Redfield criticized that response, saying she regretted that “rather than consider the substance of an alternative draft … the commission chose to characterize it as disruptive.”
Sarah Skawinski, president of the Maine Library Association, told commissioners the MLA has not taken a position on the proposed standards, but encouraged the commission to advocate for sustainable library systems and the long‑term health of library services in communities of all sizes.
The commission is expected to continue its discussion of library standards at its next meeting, scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. Monday, June 2, at the Maine State Library.
The library, which remains closed to the public during renovations, requires visitors to notify Stockman in advance so they can be admitted to the building. There will be no Zoom option for remote participation.
