Click here to view the Reciprocal Borrowing Privileges Policy as a pdf document.
The East Longmeadow Public Library supports the importance of maintaining the minimum standards of public library service required for a community to be certified by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. This policy aims to address the issue of the fair and appropriate use of the East Longmeadow Library and its resources; if one community fails to support its library, the reciprocal relationship is invalidated, as one community assumes the service responsibility for another.
In accordance with the State’s Minimum Standard for Public Library Service (Massachusetts General Laws, Ch. 78, Section 19B 1 & 6), the East Longmeadow Public Library extends reciprocal borrowing privileges to the residents of the Commonwealth who reside in communities whose libraries have been certified by the Massachusetts Board of Library
Commissioners as meeting the minimum standards.
It is, therefore, the policy of the East Longmeadow Public Library to discontinue borrowing privileges to residents of communities who terminate library service or reduce hours of opening to below a reasonable level for the size of that community as determined by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
Borrowing privileges will be denied upon notification from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners that a community’s library is uncertified or has been decertified.
The only exception to this policy shall be that residents of a community whose public library has been decertified, who submit written proof that they are East Longmeadow taxpayers, shall retain full borrowing privileges at the East Longmeadow Public Library.
Borrowing privileges will be reinstated upon notification from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners that a community’s library is re-certified.
The Reciprocal Borrowing Privileges Policy is subject to review and amendment by the Board of Library Trustees.
Approved by the Board of Library Trustees, September 21, 2004
Amended by the Board of Library Trustees, June 23, 2005
Amended by the Board of Library Trustees, August 14, 2013
Reviewed by the Board of Library Trustees, April 21, 2021
Amended by the Board of Library Trustees, December 21, 2022