Friday, July 24, 2009

Iowa Sex Offender Law Presents Challenge to Library Policy Development

Link to July 23 Cedar Rapids Gazette article, "Libraries adapting to changes in Iowa sex offender law".

Excerpt: Libraries across Iowa are creating policies attempting to protect their traditional values while complying with the state’s revised sex offender law.

Excerpt: The law, which took effect July 1, prohibits people convicted of sex offenses against minors from being in public libraries, schools and child-care centers without permission, and from loitering within 300 feet of places intended primarily for children.

The new law presents an interesting challenge for library officials, often staunch defenders of privacy rights and freedom of information.

“It is very much a balancing act between those traditions of freedom of information and privacy of the individual but yet also trying to enact the law,” said Ellen Neuhaus, president of the Iowa Library Association and a reference librarian at the University of Northern Iowa.

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