Congress is doing it again

Once again library circles are buzzing about the passage in Congress of a rather confusing law designed to protect children. The Children's Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) requires that all products being sold to children under twelve years of age be tested for safety before being marketed. The issue for librarians is whether this includes chldren's books. The law does not exclude books and some commentators worry that libraries will be asked to test whether or not the books in their current collections are free of contamination. To avoid this burden on libraries, ALA has discussed the issue with lawyers and is working to get a specific exclusion for children's books. There is no reason to believe that Congress intended the law to apply to library collections, so ALA's advice to librarians is not to do anything at the moment. If the exclusion is not made, it may become necessary for librarians to contact their representative is make sure their collections are safe from prosecution. Just one more thing to worry about!