Under existing state law, public and university library records are confidential regardless of a patron’s age, unless a court orders their release. The proposed law would include young people through age 17, but it would not apply to school libraries, since they set their own privacy policies on a district-by-district basis, state Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said in the March 18 Portland Press Herald.
The newspaper reported that Hotham filed the bill on behalf of a 15-year-old home-schooler who was upset when a librarian called her home to check on an overdue book and would not reveal the title to the girl’s mother. The Maine Civil Liberties Union and other legislators have come out against the bill, which was up for a committee vote March 25. The Maine Office of Legislative Information told American Libraries that a majority of the committee had voted that the bill “ought not to pass.” Since a report had not yet been sent to the House, there was no way of knowing how close the vote was, but the bill is most likely dead.
At an Education and Cultural Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Patrick Flood (R-Winthrop) said, “I respect the rights of parents. I also respect the rights and privileges of our children. I do not believe it serves any good purpose to create apprehension in the minds of our young people that they may be reading the wrong book or looking at the wrong pictures.”
Posted April 1, 2005.