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Basic Information for Trustees: Laws and Standards

Trustees must be familiar with the laws and standards under which the library and board need to operate.

Illinois Open Meetings Act
Designed "to ensure that public business is conducted in public view by prohibiting secret deliberations and actions on matters that should be discussed in a public forum."

Model Ethics Ordinance
Should be adopted by each board "to ensure that public officers and employees adhere to the highest ethical standards."

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Simply defined, is a "law requiring that U.S. government agencies release their records to the public on request." The American Library Association (ALA) offers an online resource for responding to a FOIA request.

Illinois Freedom of Information Act
"[I]ntended to open the government to all citizens by guaranteeing access to governmental records in whatever form they are maintained."

Illinois Library Law
Specific set of state statutes and administrative codes that outline what libraries need to do to function within the law. The laws may be found online or in the book Illinois Library Laws & Rules produced by the Illinois Library Association.

Serving Our Public: Standards for Illinois Public Libraries
Created to "help people who govern, administer, and staff the public libraries of Illinois develop and maintain high quality library service for their community."