COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE

Monday, April 24, 2023

QUESTION NO.

QUESTION: Councillor Patrick Pearse Holohan

"What is the process in our library to prevent children accessing material that is not suitable for their age?"

REPLY:

Libraries are open spaces in which we aim to give our users of all ages a sense of autonomy and inclusion. However, we make every effort to differentiate between spaces in the library and to categorise our collection to help users find what they are looking for when they choose to come to the library.

Our collections are curated by librarians, and in accordance with our collection development policy. This includes categorising books by age, both on our catalogue and in the physical library space. There are three age categories: Child, Young Adult and Adult, broken down as follows:

a) Adult – access to all library collections and to the Internet.
b) Child under 12 – access to the children's library, to DVDs up to a PG rating, and to children's Internet services when accompanied by parent/guardian.
c) Young Adult 12-14 – access to the Young Adult collection, to DVDs up to a 12 rating, and to children's Internet services with parental permission.
d) Young Adult 15-17 – access to the Young Adult collection, adult library, to DVDs up to 15 rating, and to internet services with parental permission.

Borrowing restrictions based on age category are in place to support the role of parents and guardians in supervising their children’s selections. As noted above, there are two categories of internet acccess available, both of which have filtering software applied.

Parents and guardians play a fundamental role in guiding their children’s reading and library use. 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 from one age category to the next.