Library policies

Byelaws as to Public Libraries in the City of Coventry made under Section 19 of the Public Libraries and Museum Act 1964 by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and the Citizens of the City of Coventry, acting by the Council

1. In these Byelaws, unless the context otherwise requires:
   1. the act" means the Public Libraries and Museum Act 1964;"
   2. "the Library Authority" means the Lord Mayor, Alderman and Citizens of Coventry, acting by the Council;
   3. "Library" means any library for the time being maintained by the Library Authority for the purposes of its functions under the act and includes a vehicle when being used for those purposes;
   4. "the Librarian" means the person appointed as such by the Library Authority to act on his behalf;
   5. "library officer" means the librarian or any other person employed by the Library Authority for the purposes of its function under the Act;
   6. "book" includes any and every book, journal, pamphlet, music score, manuscript, picture, print, photograph, engraving, etching, deed, map, chart, plan, gramophone record, film and any other article of like nature forming part of the contents of the library or lent to any person by on behalf of the Library Authority.
2. An act necessary for the proper execution of his duty to the library officer shall not be deemed to be a contravention of these Byelaws.
3. A person shall not give a false name or address for the purpose of entering any part of the library or for the purpose of using any facilities provided in connection therewith.
4. A person who is offensively unclean in the person or in dress, or who is suffering from an offensive disease, shall not enter or use the library.
5. Except with the consent of the library officer, a person shall not:
   1. cause or allow any dog (other than a guide dog accompanying a blind person) or other animal belonging to him or under his control to enter or remain in the library; or
   2. bring into any part of the library a wheeled vehicle or conveyance (other than an invalid chair)
6. A person shall not, after proper warning by the library officer, remain in the library after the time fixed for its closing.
7. A person shall not, unless duly authorised, take any book from the library.
8. A person shall not carelessly or negligently soil, tear, cut, deface, damage, injure or destroy any book or the furniture, fittings or other contents of the library.
9. Except with the consent for the library officer, a person shall not make a tracing of any portion of a book.
10. A person who:
    1. after the end of the period for which it is lent the library or from any person acting on behalf of the Library Authority, and
    2. after having been requested in writing by the Library Authority to deliver it to the Authority, has failed to do so within a period of fourteen days after the date of the request and
    3. has not paid to the Library Authority in respect thereof an agreed sum by the way of the compensation shall not, except with the consent of the librarian, borrow any further book from the library.
11. A person from whom any sum in due to the Library Authority by reason of charge made under Section 8(2) of the Act in respect of failure to return a book before the end of the period for which was lent shall not, except with the consent of the librarian, borrow any book from the library after having been notified in writing by the Library Authority of the amount due.
12. (1) A person having the charge or possession of any book which the Library Authority is entitled to have returned to it shall deliver it up to the Librarian within fourteen days of the service upon him by the Authority of a notice requiring him so to do.

12. (2) For the purposes of the byelaw, a notice may be served upon any person by delivering it to him, or by leaving it at his usual or last known place of residence, or by sending it by registered post or recorded delivery service addressed to him at that place.
13. A person shall not behave in a disorderly manner in the library or use violent, abusive or obscene language therein.
14. A person shall not spit in the library.
15. A person shall not, after a warning by a library officer, persist in sleeping in the library.
16. A person shall not engage in audible conversation in any part of the library set apart as a reference department or for reading after having been requested not to do so by a library officer.
17. A person shall not wilfully obstruct any library officer in the execution of his duty or wilfully disturb, obstruct, interrupt or annoy any other person in the proper use of the library.
18. A person shall not display, distribute, affix or post any bill, placard or notice in, to or upon any part of the library.
19. A person shall not, without the consent of the librarian, offer anything for sale in the library.
20. A person shall not lie on the furniture or fittings of the library or on the floor thereof except, with the consent of the librarian on the floor of any part of the library for the time set apart for the use of children.
21. A person shall not smoke or strike a light in any part of the library set apart for the use of the public, except in any part thereof which is for the time being used as a restaurant or in which, when it is being used for an educational, cultural or other event under Section 20 of the Act, the Library Authority allows smoking.
22. A person shall not, except with the consent of a library officer, partake in refreshment in the library, except in any part thereof which is for the time being used as a restaurant or in which, when it is being used for an educational, cultural or other event under Section 20 of the Act, the Library Authority allows the partaking of refreshments.
23. Except with the consent of a librarian a person shall not cause or allow any apparatus for the reception of sound broadcasting or for the reproduction or sound to be operated in any part of the library set apart for the use of the public.
24. Every person who shall offend against any of the foregoing Byelaws (other than Byelaws 10 and 11) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the sum of twenty pounds.
25. Every person who, within the view of the library officer, contravenes any of the forgoing Byelaws may be excluded or removed from the library by such officer if:
    1. his name and address are unknown to an cannot readily be ascertained by the officer; or
    2. from the nature of the contravention or from any other fact of which the officer may have knowledge of be credibly informed there is reasonable ground for belief that his continuance in the library may result in another contravention of the Byelaws of the proper use of the regulation thereof;
26. On the coming into operation of these Byelaws, the Byelaws relating to libraries which were made by the Mayor, Alderman and Citizens of the City of Coventry, acting by the Council, on the 23rd day of June, 1972, and were confirmed by the Minister of Education on the 6th day of July, 1972, shall be revoked,