Policy Examples

This page is devoted to helping you to develop and refine policies appropriate to your library. It does this by including examples of policies, whenever possible from  member libraries of SELS. If you  know of a member library with some really good policies which aren’t on this page, please let us know!

Regarding the statute cited to the right, note that a few libraries have advisory boards (only allowed with a certain population size), and in this case the city council has the power to approve policy. With most of our libraries, however, this power resides solely with the library board.

Section 51–212 of the Nebraska State Statutes states that library use is “subject always to such reasonable regulations as the library board may adopt to render such library of the greatest use to the inhabitants of the city, village, county, or township. The board may exclude from the use of the library and reading rooms any person who willfully violates or refuses to comply with rules and regulations established for the government thereof.”

Examples of Policies

Patron Behavior Policies
 
Circulation Policies
These policies often include sections on privacy and confidentiality. Examples below that do are marked with a [p].
 
Privacy Policies
Privacy and Confidentiality Policies are sometimes contained in circulation policies (see those marked with a [p] above).
 
Collection Development Policies
These policies also may contain policy sections covering reconsideration (examples below are marked with an [r] and memorials, gifts, and donations (examples below are marked with a [d]).
 
Reconsideration Policies
Reconsideration policies and forms are often contained in collection development policies (see those marked with [r] above). Following is an example of a separate policy:
 
Reconsideration Forms
 
Memorial, Gift, and Donations Policies
Often, this subject matter is covered in the collection development policy (see those marked with a [d] above).
 
Disaster Preparedness Policies
5.  dPlan|ArtsReady. While not specifically a library resource, even the free pocket resource template here can help you create emergency policy and procedures for your library.
 
Records Retention Policies
 
Social Media Policies
 
Advocacy Policies