Dianne Koehler, Board Chair at Wells Branch Library, has been proactive in contacting her board about the Consumer Product Safety Act events.
See her comments below. You may want to inform your board as well. Thanks, Dianne! Laurie Laurie Mahaffey, Deputy Director Central Texas Library System, Inc. 1005 West 41st Street Austin, Texas 78756 www.ctls.net [email protected] 512-583-0704 x18 800-262-4431 x18 ________________________________ From: Diannek [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 10:29 AM To: Laurie Mahaffey Subject: RE: [ctls-l] More on the Consumer Product Safety Act related to books sure. It might be a good idea to send a copy to our senators and representative as well. this is what I sent to my board: Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009, 9:44 AM You may want to go to this link: https://24.173.13.174/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.cpsc.gov/cgib in/newleg.aspx and express your own comments on the impending regulation CPSC that may require us to not allow books to children under 12 until they have been tested locally. the ruling goes into effect February 10th. Below is what I sent them. "As a member of the Board of Trustees of our local library, I must protest the imminent enaction of the CPSC ruling as it applies to children's books. It is totally impossible to provide library services to children and their families if books have to be removed until they have been tested locally and found to be safe for consumption. It would be acceptable if the book publishers that use lead-free print are certified and therefore their product if this is still deemed necessary to protect children. This ruling at a time when more families than ever before are coming to the library for services places an impossible burden on local resources. Please move to exempt libraries at both the public and school level at this time and until this matter has received adequate review and planning on implementation to facilitate it." Dianne Koehler Wells Branch Community Library tel: 989-3188 cell: 507-0116 I GoodSearch for Wells Branch Community Library FOL Raise money for our charity just by searching the Internet or shopping online with GoodSearch using www.goodsearch.com <http://www.goodsearch.com/> - powered by Yahoo! ________________________________ ________________________________ From: Diannek [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 9:46 AM To: Laurie Mahaffey Subject: RE: [ctls-l] More on the Consumer Product Safety Act related to books I actually went to the RSS information and there is a "call to submit comments" that occured a few days ago. Someone apparently felt that commenting before instead of after was in order. the link to make comments is: http://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/newleg.aspx this is the note from 5 days ago: Update on Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act <http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=1567> A public meeting was held today with Kristina Hatlelid, Directorate for Health Sciences, and other Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff to allow Allan Robert Adler, of the Association of American Publishers, and major publishing companies to discuss the lead content of books. The meeting was a time for the publishing companies to explain their research to the CPSC staff that proves that normal books (non-play, paper books) do not contain lead in the amount specified under the CPSIA. The publishing companies have compiled a group of 300 test results that can be viewed here <http://www.rrd.com/wwwCPSIA/home.asp> . After the meeting, Cheryl Falvey, General Counsel for the CPSC, stated that a decision should be made by the first week of February. She advised libraries not to take any action at this time, and we are hopeful that the Commission's decision will exempt libraries. Even with her assurances, we must let the CPSC know how important an issue this is to libraries. You can visit their Web site, found here <http://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/newleg.aspx> , to submit your comments to the Commission. Explain to the Commission that it is simply impossible for libraries to remove all children's books from the shelves and/or ban children under 12 from the library and still provide the level of service that is needed. Jessica McGilvray, Assistant Director Office of Government Relations ALA Washington Office [email protected] Dianne Koehler Wells Branch Community Library tel: 989-3188 cell: 507-0116 I GoodSearch for Wells Branch Community Library FOL Raise money for our charity just by searching the Internet or shopping online with GoodSearch using www.goodsearch.com <http://www.goodsearch.com/> - powered by Yahoo!
