Handbook for Library Trustees of New York State (2023 Edition)

Providing free and open access is fundamental to the role of a public library. To provide library access to a diverse community, a library must provide convenient hours; a well-designed facility and website; collections and programs that provide every community member with both windows to, and mirrors of, diverse life experiences; and friendly, helpful staff that treat all who approach the library for service with dignity. The role of the public library is to be a valuable resource to everyone in the community. 

Access begins with an awareness of the diversity of the individuals we serve.  Be they a young person learning to read; seniors lacking mobility; someone whose first language is not English; a neurodiverse individual; those with hearing or visual impairments; someone who is unhoused; or a wounded veteran returning home; all deserve the same level of service as anyone else.  

A strong commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion should be at the heart of a board’s decision-making process. Definitions of these terms, provided by the Board of Regents, are provided in the glossary.

As boards consider issues related to access, policies, personnel, facilities and outreach, all must be done through a lens that considers not only the finances of the library, but environmental stewardship and social equity as described above. Boards must consider if their members truly represent all members of the community and seek input from those whose voices are not present on the current Board of Trustees to ensure all perspectives are considered in board decisions. Trustees should make sure the library’s long-range/strategic plan provides steps to incorporate this level of equity, diversity and inclusion within future iterations of the Board.

Board and staff education goals should include cultural responsiveness, disability awareness, eco-literacy and other topics that enhance the ability of the library’s stakeholders to plan and budget for inclusive services. 

There are many practicable approaches a library board can take to make meaningful changes in support of equity, diversity, and inclusion including:

• Governance: Prioritize achieving board diversity, reflective of the community, through board recruitment practices and a commitment to creating a culture of inclusion on the board.  
• Community Engagement: Seek input from community members who represent a full spectrum of demographics and life experiences. Work with care and intention to make sure that engagement practices are based on mutual trust, confidence and respect. 
• Continuing Education for Staff and Trustees: Prioritize learning in the areas of cultural responsiveness, disability awareness, eco-literacy, etc.
• Workforce Diversity: Develop practices and policies for the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce in all areas and levels of work at the library.
• Collections, Programs, and Services: Ensure access to expansive reading materials, formats and learning opportunities that include all members of your community.
• Policies: Regularly review policies to evaluate for disparate or inequitable impact on populations or individuals within your community and staff.  Adopt an equity, diversity, and inclusion policy to address and codify the Board’s comprehensive approach to complex issues relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion.  

A word about patrons with disabilities: As expressed by the American Library Association: "The category of a “person with a disability” includes a broad range of individuals with a diversity of abilities, identities, and appearances. Library staff should never presuppose a person’s limits based on disability. Libraries are committed to providing equal access to collections, services, and facilities for all library users. When this is not possible, reasonable accommodations and timely remediation should be employed to provide an equivalent experience to people with disabilities."

Every New Yorker has the right to access library services in their community. 

Education Commissioner’s Regulations require the Board to maintain a facility that meets community needs. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG); the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Sections 504 and 508); and the Architectural Barriers Act prescribe specific building standards to ensure access for persons with disabilities. All new construction and substantial renovations must comply with ADA requirements. Libraries with inaccessible (or even partially inaccessible) buildings must have a written plan describing how their programs and services will be delivered to customers who cannot gain access and document efforts to improve the accessibility of the facility. 

There is no such thing as your facility being “grandfathered in” under the ADA. Every Board should prioritize and commit to making its building fully accessible.

Accessible facilities will also need to be designed and equipped to withstand the impact of climate change on your region. Not everyone in a community experiences severe weather or extended power outages in the same manner. More frequent and intense storms that could lead to flooding and extended power outages could become a barrier to access if your facility is not resilient, or you have not provided for service redundancies such as whole building generators and disaster preparedness planning to ensure your facility can open quickly after a disruptive weather event to meet your community’s needs. Facilities should also reflect a commitment to reducing the library’s carbon footprint through a long-term commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the leading cause of climate change. Libraries can lead the way in your community to create high-performance buildings and make the switch to renewable energy to lessen reliance on fossil fuels and seek energy independence. Stabilizing energy costs through the adoption of renewable energy sources will be another key to ensuring uninterrupted, or minimally interrupted access to facilities in the face of market volatility. (See the next chapter on Facilities for more information.)

Libraries are for everyone, and not everyone learns the same way or has the same capabilities on a variety of fronts. From assistive technologies to make the library’s materials accessible to all, to translation services, to outreach to those who cannot come to the library physically, libraries need to prepare to offer accessible and inclusive services for all. 

For example:

• Collection Development policies should encourage the staff to curate collections that reflect all community members and their information needs, while providing materials in a variety of formats including low vision, large print, and assistive technology options to access the collection. 
• Every library should provide their constituents with information about the services available through the New York State Library Talking Book and Braille Library (for residents of the 55 upstate counties) and the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library (for residents of New York City and Long Island). 
• Services to people who are homebound must be a recognized service program in every library, both for the fact that such patrons need library services as much as or more than others in the community and that homebound services are legally required under the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
• The library’s website should have features that are friendly to screen reading software, contrasting colors for those with vision issues, and translation services.

If a public service environment is not fully accessible and inclusive, it cannot play its unique role in the support and preservation of democracy or fulfill its true community purpose. It is the trustee’s responsibility to plan and budget for library service for all people in our communities and to confront all the realities of the world that could also create barriers in the future. 
 

• Accessibility / ADA Statement
• Collection Development
• Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
• Programming
• Vulnerable Adults
• Website