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3rd April 2023
11:21am BST
These groups are entering libraries and asking librarians to show them these books. They then ask their followers to take pictures of what they deem "inappropriate" and "violate" the Children First Act (2015).
A spokeswoman for the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) told The Irish Times that they are aware of the protests happening have libraries have been provided with more support and information on how to deal with the issue.
“Library collections are curated by librarians with professional expertise, in accordance with each library service’s collection development policy. This includes categorising books by age. Borrowing restrictions based on age category are in place to support the role of parents and guardians in supervising their children’s selections,” a spokeswoman said.
“They are responsible for their children in the library, and for their children’s selections and use of library materials and services, including access to the internet and online resources. For this reason, parental consent is required when a child joins the library and further consent is sought before members move age category."
Library management has recently informed staff that any child moving up in a reading age group must have signed consent from a parent recorded on their IT system.
As well as this, any teenager joining a library will placed in the child membership category if they do not have parental consent.
The LGMA has said that despite opposition from some library staff members, the case of parental consent has always been a requirement for the membership of those under 18 years of age.
