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Library Meeting Rooms

The library board is charged with responsibility for the library, including meeting rooms.  The major decision to be made in this area is whether to allow meeting rooms to be used for library programs only or to open them up to community groups.  A federal court ruling in 1989 (Concerned Women for America, Inc. v. Lafayette County, 883 F.2d 32) defined library meeting rooms used by the public as public forums in which constitutionally guaranteed free speech is allowed.  This means that if a library meeting room is open to one public group it must be open to all public groups.  The library board may make rules on the times that the meeting room can be used, how much may be charged for the room use and the manner or use of the facility, but not which group can use it if it is open to public groups.

 

Another law applying to library meeting rooms is Iowa Code Section 43.93.  Under this law, library meeting rooms must allow a precinct caucus to be held in the library.  In part, the section states that “…upon the application of the county chairperson, the person having control of a building supported by taxation under the laws of this state shall make available the space necessary to conduct the caucus without charge during presidential election years and at a charge not greater than that made of its use by other groups during other years...”

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