This past Tuesday, a state senate committee held a public hearing on two bills (SB-597 and SB-598) dealing with school libraries and public libraries. One bill requires school libraries to notify parents of a student under the age of 16 of any materials or documents the student checks out no later than 24 hours after the checkout. The other bill requires the same thing of public libraries. Current law allows parents to find out what their children are checking out if the parent requests the information.

Senators Romaine Quinn (R-Cameron) and Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) addressed the committee and noted that their offices have received an influx of complaints from parents regarding books housed in public libraries.

“This bill puts the parent and/or guardian in the driver seat to have conversations with their children about any materials or themes that they find their child is not ready to be exposed to,” said Quinn. “The onus should not be put on the librarian, the aid, or the volunteer to make that decision as parenting styles differ from family to family, and many libraries have a self-check-out system where there may not be any interactions when the child has the entire trip to the library.”

Wisconsin Family Action also testified in favor of these bills. “A child’s parents are the first and most important teachers for their children,” said WFA policy director Jack Hoogendyk. “We need to do everything we can to allow and encourage parents to be involved in every aspect of their child’s education.”

The assumption in these bills is that parents should know what their children are utilizing in a school library or a public library. The bills basically shift the burden from the parents for getting that information and put it on the libraries. While parents should welcome this approach, many librarians view it as more work and an invasion of children’s privacy. Ultimately, parental rights should be prioritized, and these bills are a great way of doing so.