SWAN Board,

I find this to be incredibly interesting! Have any of you heard about a SWAN library getting a letter like the one Judy Hutchinson, PrairieCat Manager, describes below?

Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog@railslibraries.info
http://support.swanlibraries.net

I learned today that two PrairieCat members (Wilmington PL and Three Rivers PL) received letters yesterday from a Chicago law firm informing that they are representing a client who feels she needs additional accommodations from her library because of a disability. The letter specifically requests extended due dates and no fines because the patron reads so slowly, but those were all the details provided about the disability as far as I know. It is not clear yet which is the patron’s home library because the patron record in PrairieCat has both Wilmington and Channahon information (not geographically adjacent) and a not-in-service phone number. The Wilmington library staff has requested more information from the attorney. I haven’t asked for a copy of the letter yet, but can.

PrairieCat does have specific policies on extended due dates for other libraries’ materials (a library can extend due dates as much as they want for their patrons / their items, but is not supposed to extend beyond six weeks for other libraries’ materials), which is why I was brought into this today. Plus, the staff member I spoke to at Wilmington is concerned that this may become a PrairieCat-wide issue. And, obviously we want to make sure our policies/procedures are correct in regards to compliance with ADA, etc.

So, I wanted to check to see if any of you are aware of other libraries receiving letters, or is this an isolated incident? I’ve been hearing a lot about the FOIA barrage again, so wanted to make sure this wasn’t a widespread issue also. It feels like we might want to get an attorney to weigh in on PrairieCat’s side about what is the correct response, so I would be happy to send this to Kathie Henn for her input, or I didn’t know if RAILS would want to do a more RAILS-wide approach by contacting the RAILS attorney, particularly if this isn’t an isolated incident?  I included Rose on this email, too, not knowing if this patron might be eligible for Talking Books, although it doesn’t sound like it with what we know so far. We are also wondering if it is a reading/comprehension problem, not a vision or physical limitations issue, if we are able to request some professional’s sign off on eligibility, rather than just taking the patron or attorney’s word that there is a disability. Another idea the library had was limiting the number of items the patrons has out simultaneously if a very extended due date is going to be provided and/or restricting extended due dates for new, popular materials with hold queues – but again, we don’t want to do anything to be non-compliant with ADA.

Any thoughts you have about how to proceed would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Judy

Judy Hutchinson
PrairieCat LLSAP Services Manager
Reaching Across Illinois Library System
Coal Valley Office
Phone: 309.623.4314
Fax: 309.517.1567
judy.hutchinson@railslibraries.info
http://www.railslibraries.info