GLC Legal and Ethical Principles 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the USA PATRIOT Act, what are librarians generally required to do if served with a Section 215 order?
- Immediately notify the patron whose records were requested
- Comply with the order and keep it confidential (gag order) (Correct answer)
- Refuse compliance and notify the ALA
- Destroy the requested records before producing them
Correct answer: Comply with the order and keep it confidential (gag order)
Section 215 orders come with a gag order prohibiting librarians from disclosing the request to the patron or public.
Question 2: Which ALA policy document addresses the ethical responsibility of librarians to resist censorship?
- The Freedom to Read Statement
- The Library Bill of Rights (Correct answer)
- The Code of Ethics of the ALA
- The Children's Internet Protection Act
Correct answer: The Library Bill of Rights
The Library Bill of Rights is the foundational ALA policy document affirming intellectual freedom and opposing censorship.
Question 3: A library board wants to remove a book from shelves solely because community members find its content offensive. What ethical principle does this most directly conflict with?
- Patron privacy
- Intellectual freedom (Correct answer)
- Copyright compliance
- Collection development policy
Correct answer: Intellectual freedom
Removing materials based solely on community offense without professional review violates the principle of intellectual freedom.
Question 4: Which federal law requires public libraries receiving E-rate funds to install internet filtering software?
- COPPA
- FERPA
- CIPA (Correct answer)
- DMCA
Correct answer: CIPA
The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) mandates internet filtering for libraries that accept E-rate or LSTA discounts.
Question 5: When a librarian discovers a colleague has been sharing patron circulation records with a local law enforcement officer without a court order, what should the librarian do first?
- Ignore it since law enforcement requests are always valid
- Report the conduct to library administration or legal counsel (Correct answer)
- Notify the patrons whose records were shared
- Post the incident on social media to alert the public
Correct answer: Report the conduct to library administration or legal counsel
The proper first step is to escalate to administration or legal counsel so the institution can respond through appropriate channels.
Question 6: A library's collection development policy is best described as which type of document?
- A legally binding contract with publishers
- A professional guideline governing selection and deselection decisions (Correct answer)
- A federal regulatory requirement
- An ALA accreditation standard
Correct answer: A professional guideline governing selection and deselection decisions
Collection development policies are professionally created internal guidelines that provide defensible criteria for selection and deselection.
Question 7: Under Georgia law, which entity has primary legal authority over a public library's policies and operations?
- The Georgia Public Library Service
- The local library board of trustees (Correct answer)
- The American Library Association
- The county commission alone
Correct answer: The local library board of trustees
The local library board of trustees holds primary legal authority for policy-making and governance of a public library under Georgia law.
GLC Legal and Ethical Principles 2
Under the USA PATRIOT Act, what are librarians generally required to do if served with a Section 215 order?