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Farmers Branch Library Board debates spine stickers, privacy and access after patron feedback
Summary
Board members discussed patron feedback including requests for content labels (rainbow stickers), access to digital collections, and self-checkout usability. Members raised privacy and gatekeeping concerns and asked staff to gather more detail before changing policy.
At a regular meeting, the Farmers Branch Library Board reviewed patron feedback forms and debated whether to add visible spine stickers to identify books with LGBTQ-related content or themes.
Board Chair Kristen, reading patron comments and leading the discussion, said the idea drew both support and concerns: “I do like the idea of adding the rainbow stickers on the spines of books that have those things in it because it would help the people who are looking for it find it,” she said, while other board members warned that visible labels could create a “gatekeeper” role for staff and raise patron-privacy concerns.
Board members discussed alternatives, including a general signage statement that the library is inclusive and suggestions that parents supervise children’s selections. One board member said they would “much rather air on the side that there’s no stickers,” citing worries about who decides which books receive labels. The transcript records the exchange as a deliberative discussion; the board tabled any decision pending further review and public feedback.
The board also reviewed other patron feedback: a complaint that the online schedule showed yoga classes (staff believed the patron likely saw another facility’s schedule), and a report that the library’s self-checkout machine is not intuitive. Kristen noted the machine could need timing adjustments and staff agreed to investigate configuration options to reduce user errors and long receipt runs.
On digital collections, staff explained that some e-content vendors (Hoopla and similar platforms) restrict access by service area per vendor contracts. Kristen clarified, “that’s built into a lot of our contracts with these vendors that we can’t just let it go out to all patrons in our patron base. So we have to specifically contain it to just Farmers Branch residents in a lot of cases.” The board asked staff to compile more concrete information on contract limits and options for consortia or interlibrary agreements before any policy change.
Next steps: staff will return with vendor-contract details, a summary of patron comments referenced during the discussion, and proposed wording for any signage or non-visual alternatives for identifying specialized content.
