Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Lake County Public Library - 6/29/17
The mission of the Lake County Public Library (LCPL) is to provide the highest quality informational, educational, cultural, and recreational resources and services to residents of all ages in the Lake County Public Library District.
The principles of access to library materials are embodied and expressed in the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights and its Interpretations and its Freedom to Read Statement, which have been adopted by the Trustees of the Lake County Public Library.
The Board of Trustees has established policies that foster the widest possible access to the library’s materials and services. Access will not be denied or abridged because of religious, racial, social, economic, or political status; or because of mental, emotional, or physical condition; age; or sexual orientation. The Library abides by the Americans with Disabilities Act and will endeavor to make reasonable accommodation to provide access to library materials for people with impairments.
Residents of the LCPL district are eligible for full access cards. Per IC 36-12-2-25 limited access cards are provided to any eligible individuals. The director is responsible for determining the borrowing limits, circulation rules, and guidelines for both full access and limited access cards.
The use of the library may be denied for due cause. Such cause may be failure to return library materials or to pay penalties, destruction of library property, disturbance of other patrons, or any other illegal, disruptive, or objectionable conduct on library premises.
It is the policy of the Board of Trustees of the Lake County Public Library to insure, so far as possible, the privacy of the users of its service and not to make any inquiries into the purposes for which a patron requests information or books.
Library circulation records are for the sole purpose of protecting public property and are not to be used either directly or indirectly to identify the types of materials used by individual library patrons. Under no circumstances shall the library staff answer to a third party about what a patron of the library is reading or calling for from the library’s collections.
Furthermore, such records shall not be made available to any agency of local, state or federal government except pursuant to such process, order, or subpoena as may be authorized under the authority of, and pursuant to, local, state or federal law relating to civil, criminal, or administrative discovery procedures or legislative investigatory power.
The Board of Trustees shall resist the enforcement of any such process, order, or subpoena until such time as a proper showing of good cause has been made in a court of competent jurisdiction. Moreover, any costs incurred by the library in any search through patron records, even under a court order, shall be chargeable to the agency demanding the search.
Card holders are responsible for all materials borrowed or accessed through their card or the cards of children (under the age of 18) for whom they have assumed responsibility. Lost cards should be reported immediately; card holders are responsible for all materials on their card up to the time that they report the card as lost.
The LCPL Board of Trustees believes that parents are responsible for guiding their children’s use of library resources. Parents may choose to monitor or limit the library use of their own child. Standards applied by a child’s parents for that child shall not be imposed on anyone else’s child.
For information relating to fines and fees for full access library cards and lost, damaged or overdue material, refer to the Fines and Fees Policy adopted by the Lake County Public Library Board of Trustees.
The Lake County Public Library is a member of a variety of resource sharing consortia that provide additional access to resources and services for cardholders. Rules for access to these materials are governed by the policies of individual consortia members and may vary.
Adopted 11/22/71
Revised 01/28/82
Revised 10/28/82
Revised 05/23/85
Revised 01/22/87
Revised 04/28/88
Revised 10/27/94
Revised 12/30/97
Revised 04/22/99
Revised 6/29/17
