[Web4lib] MySpace and Public Libraries

[Samantha Schmehl Hines]

I've pulled out my notes from Law for Librarians and here are the
relevant bits.  First of all, let me just emphasize that I am not a
lawyer and please don't construe any of this as legal advice.

In a seminar by Teresa Chmara on the First Amendment and libraries,
she discussed the general concept of the library as a public forum.
In this seminar she said the main determination of whether your
specific library is a public forum is to look at the mission of your
library and your policies.  Who do you serve?  Students? A
corporation? Everyone who walks through the door?  She also pointed
out that the creation of a public forum must be intentional.  If you
have a blog, for example, the turning on of the comments feature could
be construed as the creation of a public forum since you could just as
easily not allow comments.  Conversely, if you have a bulletin board
for the purpose of promoting library events, you don't have to allow
everyone to post their own notices just because it is a bulletin
board. The creation and consistent enforcement of written policies
with provisions for challenges was emphasized repeatedly.  Another key
point is that you shouldn't discriminate based on content in public
fora, even if you draft that into your policies.

She did mention a couple specific cases that may be of interest:

Perry Education Assn v. Perry Local Educators' Assn, 460 Us 37, 46
(1983): The state can't discriminate based on content in public fora
unless it can demonstrate a compelling interest that makes the
restriction necessary and that there's no other less restrictive way
to achieve that interest.

Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Def. & Educ. Fund, 473 US 788, 802 (1985):
Public fora are only created by intentional action creating a space
for public discourse.

I hope this helps--I can try to clarify/explain further if there are
questions.  I should also say that none of this case law has been
applied to online forums as far as I know, but was just suggested as a
consideration when creating MySpace pages, blogs and so on.

Samantha
U of Montana



On 1/26/07, Jami Haskell <jamihaskell at gmail.com> wrote:
> Samantha (and Margaret) and all,
>
> This is exactly the information I am looking for! I need to outline these
> concerns to my director.
> It would be very helpful to see what you have, if possible.
> Thanks!
> Jami
>
>
> On 1/26/07, Samantha Schmehl Hines <samhines at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Margaret and others,
> >
> > I don't know if this has been discussed to death (I'm on the web4lib
> > digest) but at Law for Librarians last April in Chicago we were
> > encouraged to think of MySpace, blogs and the like as public fora and
> > manage them in ways that we manage other public fora (have clear
> > policies for what can and can't be posted reviewed by an attorney, in
> > accordance with other policies like those for meeting rooms, public
> > bulletin boards and displays, etc.)  I can try to drag out my material
> > if you'd like but I don't think I have any firm case law, statutes
> > etc.
> >
> > Samantha Hines
> > Social Sciences Librarian,
> > University of Montana
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 21
> > Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:51:28 -0800
> > From: "HAZEL Margaret E"
> <margaret.e.hazel at ci.eugene.or.us>
> > Subject: RE: [Web4lib] MySpace and Public Libraries
> > To: <Web4lib at webjunction.org>
> > Message-ID:
> >
> <BD2384CED8410B40A1620A83097F94FC014F29D3 at cesrv010.eugene1.net
> >
> > Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"
> >
> > I have a somewhat different angle on this question - I'm trying to find
> > out if anyone implementing social networking tools of any sort for the
> > public has gotten a legal opinion on our role as public institutions in
> > providing that public interaction.  Are we creating a public forum, and
> > what can we and can't we do, once we've done this?  Have people
> > considered the intellectual freedom aspects of providing the access to
> > these interactive tools?  What kind of training, disclaimers, rules,
> > etc. have you set in place around the tools?
> >
> > -Margaret Hazel
> > Eugene Public Library
> > Eugene, OR
> > _______________________________________________
> > Web4lib mailing list
> > Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> >
>
>


-- 
"What is this, slap the librarian day?"

--Flynn Carsen, "The Librarian"