Objectives • Responsibility • Criteria • Gifts and Donations  • SC Policy IJL

This policy provides guidelines for material selection for all library media centers in the Wellesley Public School System.

Library Material Selection Policy 

Objectives

The School Committee endorses the Library Bill of Rights, as adopted by the American Library Association, which asserts that the responsibility of the school library is to:

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people in the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting the abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

VI. Libraries that make meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

VII. All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.

Responsibility for Material Selection

Initial purchase suggestions for library materials may come from all personnel. Students will also be encouraged to make suggestions. The librarian will select materials to be included in the school library. 

The School Committee subscribes in principle to the statements of policy on library philosophy as expressed in the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read Statement.

Criteria for Selection of Materials

  • Needs of the individual student. 
  • Needs of the individual school, based on knowledge of the curriculum of the school, and requests from the professional staff.
  • Provision of a wide range of materials on many levels of difficulty with a diversity of appeal and the presentation of different points of view.
  • Provision of materials of high artistic quality.
  • Provision of materials with superior format.
  • Reputable, unbiased, professionally prepared selection aids are consulted as guides.

Gifts and Donations

  • Gifts of library books will be accepted in keeping with the above policy on selection. Complaints about library books will be handled in line with Committee policy on complaints about instructional materials.
  • The District libraries welcome donations of books and other resource materials from individuals and organizations but also reserve the right to refuse materials that do not meet the criteria for selection stated above.
  • In addition, financial donations to benefit District libraries will be accepted with the understanding that funds will be used to purchase materials that are needed for libraries based on the needs of the individual schools.

Voted on and approved May 2023