It proved to be a productive meeting at City Hall Monday night as citizens came out to voice their concerns over proposals of several policies presented by the Cushing Public Library Board.
The Library Board submitted the proposals to the Commission for discussion and possible action prior to last month’s regular Board of Commissioners meeting. However, commissioners voted to table the proposals until a special study session could be held to include the librarian, La Dawn Conner and Library board members.
The three proposal items on the agenda were the Library Meeting Room Policy, Rules of Conduct Policy and the Material Selection Policy.
Jayn Carson, Library Board spokesperson, explained the need for such policies. “In order to receive certain state grant funds, we are required to have written guidelines,” Carson said. “One such policy is the Material Selection Policy.”
Carson went on to say that the reason for the meeting room and rules of conduct policies was to ensure continuity and to provide guidelines and needed structure for the staff. However it was some of those proposed “guidelines” that brought out over 40 people to Monday’s meeting, including a large group of members of the Cushing Genealogy Club.
“One of the things I like to do is travel around and check out the genealogy sections in libraries,” said member Jim Mullins. “We should take pride in our genealogy. I feel it’s part of the library.”
Some of the new policy “rules” causing concern were as follows:
“Evening meetings will not be permitted to extend later than 15 minutes before closing.”
Several of the organizations, including the genealogical club, said it was sometimes difficult to finish their meetings in that time frame due to work schedules and occasional “combined meetings”.
Carson explained the reasoning behind the specific time frame was that library employees are not allowed overtime. “There are only three librarians,” she said. “If the City can come up with a way to work this out – we are certainly open.”
Another item that raised questions and concerns was the one stating “The Library cannot provide storage for any items not owned by the City of Cushing.”
Several citizens, including Lynda Smith, former Mayor, pointed out that civic groups such as the Daughters of the Revolution (DAR), Hypatia, Genealogy, PEO and even Rotary store their historical documents at the Library. “These organizations don’t have a specific place to keep these historical items,” Smith said. “Not everyone has a Lions Den. It would be a shame for them to be lost.”
Smith also produced a copy of policies written by previous Library board members. “I appreciate what the Board does,” Smith said. “We have had policies in the past. Here’s 1994 – 2000 – ‘Goals and Objectives, Performance Standards, Policies’ – they’re all here.”
Library Board members indicated they were unaware of such policies and agreed to look them over.
As for the proposed Rules of Conduct, Carson stated that they were written to provide staff with specific guidelines for specific behavior.
Commissioners, however, felt they were “too broad.”
Commissioner Joe Manning said he felt they were “too restrictive” and the “can’t do this” and “can’t do that” would restrict rather than welcome people to the library.
Manning received hearty applause when he said, “I’m not saying we shouldn’t have written policies – we need them. We just need to not have so many rules – we need to use common sense.”
Library Board members agreed to communicate with the various interested civic groups while revamping their proposal regarding meeting room policies. They also agreed to take a look at simplifying the rules of conduct.
The Materials Selection Policy is the only portion expected to be voted upon at the regular commission meeting next Monday.
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