I am researching the question of whether public libraries, when they open up their meeting rooms to outside groups, have to allow the rooms to be used for religious services. I understand there is a case in California being decided now, Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover, and wonder what the implications would be for New York State public libraries if it is decided in favor of the church. Will all public libraries in the country have to allow religious services if their meeting rooms are used by outside groups? Is there any way a library could avoid this?
Some useful links and opinions on a California case are the U.S. Dept of Justice amicus brief; the U.S. District Court preliminary injunction; and a
LibraryLaw blog brief entry for May 25, 2005. Scroll down to May 25 and several other dates that have related postings regarding meeting room policies.
In addition, if you are near an academic or large public library, you can search Library and Information Science & Technology Abstracts (one of Ebsco's databases). The search: meeting room* and (relig* or sectar* or church*) gets 13 hits, 11 of them linked to full text - primarily 1-3 page articles in American Libraries or Library Journal.
A more detailed search would be Lexis Academic / Legal Research / Law Reviews. The search: meeting rooms and libraries and (religi! or church or sectarian) gets 147 hits in "all available dates. Many seem clearly irrelevant, so it seems better to use "Guided Search", and change the "Full Text" to "at least 3", which gets 5 hits in "all available dates. A much more general search, meeting room! and librar! gets only 6 hits in Lexis / Legal Research / Legal News.
If you are closer to a public library, you may do quite OK with searches in Masterfile Premier(Ebsco), Infotrac, and Newspaper databases. Masterfile gets 11 hits for the search: libraries and meeting room* and (relig* or church* or worship or sectarian). It might be wise to simply search: libraries and meeting room*, and scan through the 66 hits in case there are other words that suggest religious or sectarian uses without actually saying those words.
This will take some fairly detailed research, and probably some time, because it appears that legal requirements are now being litigated and decided.
Jim Miller
U of Maryland