The video below is very difficult for public service employees to watch. Citizen Journalists have been performing ‘1st Amendment Audits’ of public sites and touring public buildings to see how well, or poorly the community will “embrace American 1st Amendment protected activity”. Videos of the confrontational exchanges are showing up across the web with views that can far exceed your own website or even page views of your online catalog.
Recently, the Plymouth District Library experienced one of these visits. Since filming in a library without express permission is a core belief held closely by libraries across America, the battle here is typical of the reaction when library staff encounter a videographer inside their ‘limited public forum’ space.
I encourage you to watch as much of the video as possible to get a better understanding of these situations, should an auditor visit your library.
The first thing to wrap your mind around with an audit is that the videographer is specifically NOT interested in violating the privacy rights of staff or patrons. It’s very unlikely that they will ever focus their camera on patrons who do not approach or confront the camera operator(s). Next, and most important: your reaction to the camera will be the determining factor in whether the visit is quick and mostly painless or if it will become an ever-lasting legal probe of the highest order.
In Michigan libraries, the key to surviving an audit is to focus on your mission and simply ignore the camera. The Michigan Library Association points out that libraries in our state have ‘limited public forum’ status’ which offers some level of control. I would strongly suggest staff be trained to respond properly to unapproved recording. Otherwise, your team will spend the next year responding to FOIA requests & potential lawsuits that will only tarnish your hard earned institutional reputation and can lead to serious financial judgements against the library and/or the municipality and/or law enforcement officials who also seek to protect and serve.
If you’d like to review our ‘Survival Guide’, please email us from your official library account. Our approach to responding to the audit is prescient, unique and will be a corner-stone for training staff. The guide and the presentation are free for all public libraries.
Wishing you the best,
Scott –