A 7568: Requires the state librarian to provide guidance on the curation of library material to all school library systems.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7568 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY April 1, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. R. CARROLL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Libraries and Education Technology AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring the state librarian to provide guidance on the curation of library material to all school library systems The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "school 2 libraries curation guidance act". 3 § 2. The education law is amended by adding a new section 282-a to 4 read as follows: 5 § 282-a. School libraries curation guidance. 1. Twelve months after 6 the effective date of this section, the state librarian shall provide to 7 each school library system established under section two hundred eight- 8 y-two of this part guidance on the curation of library materials. Such 9 guidance shall include, but not be limited to: 10 (a) standards that ensure library material shall be provided for the 11 interest, information, and enlightenment of all students and present a 12 wide range of points of view in the collection; 13 (b) standards that ensure that library material shall not be removed 14 from a school library because of the origin, background, or views of the 15 library material or of those contributing to its creation; 16 (c) standards regarding the prohibition of censorship of library mate- 17 rials; 18 (d) standards that ensure that students have access to the widest 19 array of developmentally relevant library material created for the chro- 20 nological ages and grade levels of students in the school available to 21 schools; and 22 (f) procedures based on professional standards for a librarian to 23 review and deaccession library material within a school library on a 24 regular basis, which shall include, but not be limited to: (i) the EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD10850-02-5 
 A. 7568 2 1 library material's relevance; (ii) the condition of the library materi- 2 al; (iii) the availability of duplicates; (iv) the availability of more 3 recent developmentally relevant library material created for the chrono- 4 logical ages and grade levels of students in the school; and (v) the 5 continued demand for the library material. 6 2. The state librarian shall maintain a list of library school systems 7 that have adopted policies that meet the minimum standards set forth in 8 such guidance and such list shall be published on the website of the 9 department. 10 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.