Children over the age of 10 have the intellectual freedom to read as they desire at the Washington Public Library without circulation records being provided to a parent. This was challenged at Tuesday’s Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting. During the Washington County Public Library Association’s annual report and funding request, Supervisor Jack Seward said he’d received an email from a library patron who was upset that the library wouldn’t provide him the information of what his child had been looking at or checking out at the library. Seward questioned if intellectual freedom trumps parental rights and said, “Just be aware that if you’ve got some policies that kind of go against our beliefs it could affect your funding.”

The library policy reads: “The Library Director, as Custodian of Records, or his-her designee is granted the authority, but not the obligation, to provide a parent or guardian access to his/her child’s circulation records if that child is under the age of 10,” per the library’s confidentiality of records policy. The policy also states, “Information concerning an individual’s account will be released to that individual only.” It also reads, “…Information will not be provided to the parent or guardian who is merely attempting to determine what library materials a minor child is using.” If a parent would like to see those records, then a request may be submitted and addressed by the library board.