[Publib] Re: Church groups and library meeting rooms...

[James Casey]

As one who orchestrated a program whereby our branchless public library (serving a 500 sq. mile rural county) used church school facilities in a dozen churches around the County to host a bi-weekly "story time on wheels" program, I would probably be expected to openly accept the notion of using Library meeting room faciities to host occasional church services.  Unfortunately, there are alot more churches and religious affiliations than there are Library meeting room spaces.  Add to the insufficiency of meeting room space the indaquacy of parking around many public library facilities (even for their own patrons) and the practical difficulties compound.  What a Library does for one denomination and church, it may find itself obliged to do for others.  Should the Library be host to regular services when a given church is under repair or entirely without a building -- and for how long?  Does insurance cover the use of Library meeting rooms for regular church service activities on days and times when it is closed (like Sunday morning) or does this coverage only apply to regular hours of service when the Library is open and staffed?  What may work in a rural community where there are relatively few churches and denominations, may not fit so easily in a suburban or urban environment where there may be many different religious affiliations and sects within larger multi-cultural populations.  

James B. Casey -- my own views
Director of Oak Lawn Public Library
Member of ALA Council






-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Gloria Goverman
Sent: Mon 9/25/2006 3:24 PM
To: Nann Blaine Hilyard; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Re: Church groups and library meeting rooms...
 
The ALA interpretation  boldly sidestepped the issue of holding a religious
service which is decidedly different than a church administrative meeting.
"Discussing their activities" is not the same as holding a service.  I've
been puzzling over this since the original post was made and I can't come up
with any reasons why a religious group shouldn't hold a service

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nann Blaine Hilyard" <nbhilyard at zblibrary.org>
To: <publib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 3:45 PM
Subject: RE: [Publib] Re: Church groups and library meeting rooms...



ALA on meeting room use:
http://tinyurl.com/akofe
And, yes, meeting rooms and programs are different from materials if
they are put on by outside groups, not sponsored by the library. Our
meeting room policy says that nothing an outside group says in the
meeting announcement should at all imply library endorsement.

Years ago when I directed the library in Brenham, TX, the LDS stake
(=parish) met at the library on Sunday morning.  Outside groups could
use the meeting room when the library was closed, which it was (and
still is) all day on Sunday. They were appreciative. It was a different
time, in a small city, years before the ALA interpretation and lawsuits
filed here and there.

Nann
@the library in Zion, Illinois




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