Missouri River Regional Library to require parental consent for underage users

Josh Cobb/News Tribune photo: Shelby Denti reads the book Somebunny Loves You to her granddaughter Mayla Morelos while visiting the Missouri River Regional Library on Wednesday afternoon, May 31, 2023. Beginning in June a new policy will be put into effect making it so that parents will have to sign a written consent form in order for kids to be able to check out books at the Missouri River Regional Library.
Josh Cobb/News Tribune photo: Shelby Denti reads the book Somebunny Loves You to her granddaughter Mayla Morelos while visiting the Missouri River Regional Library on Wednesday afternoon, May 31, 2023. Beginning in June a new policy will be put into effect making it so that parents will have to sign a written consent form in order for kids to be able to check out books at the Missouri River Regional Library.


The Missouri River Regional Library will soon ask parents and guardians whether their children can check out materials without them present.

This new consent form, which MRRL is still working on, is expected to be sent out in mid to late June, said Angie Bayne, assistant director of public services for MRRL.

The library is drawing up this form to comply with a new state rule which took effect Tuesday. The rule states that by the end of July, public libraries need to allow a minor's parents or guardians to decide what materials their children can access. The library must also adopt a written policy to determine whether materials are age-appropriate or not, among other details. This new rule was proposed by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in October of last year, according to previous reporting.

Under this new rule, MRRL will expire all accounts associated with users under 18 in June and will only reactivate those accounts after receiving their parents' consent forms, Bayne said. Currently, around 3,000 minors carry a MRRL card, she added, expecting the number to grow during the summer.

If parents and guardians indicate on the form they do not allow their children to check out library materials unaccompanied, the library's system will notify staff that those minors must be with a parent when checking out materials, Bayne said.

"It is a big change, because we've always just assumed that parents are responsible for their children's library use," she said.

She said the new policy would not be "a big deal" for young children since parents always go to the library with them, but parental consent is going to "really impact" independent teenage users.

And Bayne sees this as a concern. Teenage users who have been going to the library on their own for years will now need to get adults' permission to continue doing so.

"Our biggest concern as a library is those kids that are using the library independently, and whose parents aren't necessarily involved in their library use, and the fear that they will ignore or not respond to our requests for this form to be filled out," she said.

If the library does not receive the completed consent form from their parents, those users will no longer be able to check out anything from the library or access electronic resources that require a library card, Bayne said.

MRRL decided to adopt this new measure because it is "probably the most efficient way" to get parental permission from the library's thousands of underage users, Bayne said. In the future, library card applications are set to include this parental consent requirement as well, she added.

Apart from this new form, the library also needs to "tighten up" the language in its policies, such as expanding its reconsideration policy to include events and displays, Bayne said. This procedure may lead to the removal of the challenged object, according to the library's website.

MRRL already has policies stating that children's material must be evaluated "with particular attention paid to reading level and age-appropriateness of content," according to the library's website.

Bayne did not expect to see the new state rule change how the library determines what is age-appropriate.

"For the most part, our policies are in really good shape and compliant with this rule," she said.

While the new rule also allows parents and guardians to challenge the library's age designation of its material, programs and displays, the library already allows people to do so. Bayne said she did not think it would increase the number of challenges raised.

"We probably get like one (challenge) every year," she said. "It's a fairly rare occurrence."

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  photo  Josh Cobb/News Tribune photo: Kyler Cobb reads one of the books in the children's section of Jefferson City's Missouri River Regional Library on Wednesday afternoon, May 31, 2023. Beginning in June a new policy will be put into effect making it so that parents will have to sign a written consent form in order for kids to be able to check out books at the Missouri River Regional Library.
 
 
  photo  Josh Cobb/News Tribune photo: Shelby Denti and her grandson Kyler Cobb look for books in the kids section of the Missouri River Regional Library on Wednesday afternoon. Beginning in June a new policy will be put into effect making it so that parents will have to sign a written consent form in order for kids to be able to check out books at the Missouri River Regional Library.
 
 
  photo  Josh Cobb/News Tribune photo:  Beginning in June a new policy will be put into effect making it so that parents will have to sign a written consent form in order for kids to be able to check out books at the Missouri River Regional Library.
 
 
  photo  Josh Cobb/News Tribune photo: Jud Cobb plays with some of the toys available in the childrens section of the Missouri River Regional Library on Wednesday afternoon. Beginning in June a new policy will be put into effect making it so that parents will have to sign a written consent form in order for kids to be able to check out books at the Missouri River Regional Library.