North Central Regional Library

The North Central Regional Library (NCRL), headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington, is an intercounty rural library district and municipal corporation formed in 1960. NCRL provides public library services to persons residing in Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Grant, and Okanogan Counties. This 14,947-square-mile (38,710 km²) service district is only slightly smaller than the combined area of Massachusetts (10,555 square miles) and Connecticut (5,543 square miles) and comprises 1/4 of Washington State's land surface area.

NCRL provides service to its many rural patrons through its popular, unique, and innovative Mail Order Library. This was the country's first mail order library operation and has become one of the few remaining. Descriptive catalogs are designed by library staff for home use and are distributed three times per year on all rural postal routes. Books, audio recordings, and video recordings are mailed directly to the user's home and may be returned using the merchandise return label included in each shipment.

Programs

Bilingual Outreach:
NCRL's Bilingual Outreach Program provides regularly scheduled Spanish/English storytimes at public schools, Head Start, Migrant Seasonal Head Start[1], ECEAP[2], and other facilities serving children throughout Grant County to foster emergent literacy and promote reading. In 2003, NCRL received a federal "Serving Cultural Diversity" grant that funded bilingual library materials, a van, and audio listening centers.

Authors in Residence
In 2004, NCRL directed its first author in residence program to middle-school age children by bringing author Ben Mikaelsen[3] to six middle schools and the Wenatchee Public Library for programs. In 2005, author Will Hobbs[4] presented programs and kids were encouraged to read his books Far North and Jackie's Wild Seattle. In 2006, children's author/illustrator Richard Jesse Watson[5] and author Patrick Carmen[6] presented programs at schools and libraries throughout the library district. Terry Trueman[7] was the author in residence in 2007.

Branches

Brewster Community Library[8]
Bridgeport Community Library[9]
Cashmere Community Library[10]
Chelan Community Library[11]
Coulee City Community Library[12]
East Wenatchee Community Library[13]
Entiat Community Library[14]
Ephrata Community Library[15]
Grand Coulee Community Library[16]
Leavenworth Community Library[17]
Manson Community Library[18]
Mattawa Community Library[19]
Moses Lake Community Library[20]
Okanogan Community Library[21]
Omak Community Library[22]
Oroville Community Library[23]
Pateros Community Library[24]
Peshastin Community Library[25]
Quincy Community Library[26]
Republic Community Library[27]
Royal City Community Library[28]
Soap Lake Community Library[29]
Tonasket Community Library[30]
Twisp Community Library[31]
Warden Community Library[32]
Waterville Community Library[33]
Wenatchee Public Library[34]
Winthrop Community Library[35]

Major litigation

Bradburn v. North Central Library is a case involving the use or misuse of content-control software.

The plaintiffs allege that "[t]he publicly-funded North Central Regional Library District (“NCRL”) bars adult patrons from reading tens of thousands of constitutionally protected Web sites. All computer terminals at NCRL’s 28 branch libraries are subject to a filtering system that blocks access to all Web sites deemed unsuitable for children, and NCRL will not disable the filter at the request of adults. Compounding the problem, the filter wrongly identifies a vast range of innocuous Web sites as being somehow harmful to children. As a result, adult residents of a largely rural five-county area who rely on the public library for Internet access are reduced to reading only that subset of online materials that NCRL deems fit for children. This policy prevented the Plaintiff library users from conducting research for class assignments, locating legitimate businesses and organizations, and simply engaging in study or leisure reading on constitutionally protected subjects." The plaintiffs are seeking to have such software disabled upon request to allow unrestricted speech.^[1]

The defendant library asserts that its practices are constitutional and responds, "Internet filtering is a form of content selection," and that "filtering advances NCRL's mission to 'promote reading and lifelong learning' and implement its collection development policy." ^[2]

The district court scheduled oral arguments for April 15, 2008.^[3] On September 30, 2008, Judge Edward F. Shea granted motion for summary judgment, but held it in abeyance pending questions of Washington State Constitutional law before the Washington State Supreme Court. In May 2010, the Washington State Supreme Court provided an opinion after it was asked to certify a question referred by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington: “Whether a public library, consistent with Article I, § 5 of the Washington Constitution, may filter Internet access for all patrons without disabling Web sites containing constitutionally-protected speech upon the request of an adult library patron.” The Washington State Supreme Court ruled that NCRL’s internet filtering policy did not violate Article I, Section 5 of the Washington State Constitution. The Court said: “It appears to us that NCRL’s filtering policy is reasonable and accords with its mission and these policies and is viewpoint neutral. It appears that no article I, section 5 content-based violation exists in this case. NCRL’s essential mission is to promote reading and lifelong learning. As NCRL maintains, it is reasonable to impose restrictions on Internet access in order to maintain an environment that is conducive to study and contemplative thought.” The case now returns to federal court.

References

1. ^ Bradburn v. North Central Regional Library District, Plaintiff's Reply in Support of Their Motion for Summary Judgment CV-06-327-EFS (ED Wash. 02/04/2008).
2. ^ Bradburn v. North Central Regional Library District, MOTION for Summary Judgment by North Central Regional Library District CV-06-327-EFS (ED Wash. 2008-02-29).
3. ^ Bradburn v. North Central Regional Library District, NOTICE of Hearing on Motion for Summary Judgment - Oral Argument Requested CV-06-327-EFS (ED Wash. 2008-02-29).

External links

• The North Central Regional Library Web site
• The North Central Regional Library Catalog