Key Points

On September 8, 2025, the Government of Alberta revised and re-released a Ministerial Order that sets standards concerning material with sexually explicit images in school libraries. (The original release July 4, 2025 was repealed). More information about the standards can be found on this government webpage. There is no official list of banned items. It is up to the school administration to make sure items in the school collection don't contravene the new standards. The deadline for school compliance is now January 5, 2026.

• Public Library collections in schools are not subject to this order. It is the public library board, not the school board or administration, that has the authority to make decisions about the public library collection.
• Public Libraries should not react to this ministerial order by censoring library collections. Public libraries are guided by principles of Intellectual Freedom and anti-censorship. We serve the whole community, not just the students in the schools in which we are sometimes housed.
• The public library can lend any type of material out during public library hours. Even if the library is housed in a school.
• The school can choose to donate to the public library prohibited items it removes from its collection to ensure popular titles remain available to the community.

Please reach out to your NLLS Consultant if you have questions or are unsure where your public library collection begins and the school collection ends.

Other Guidance for School-Housed Libraries:

Read your School-Housed Library Agreement

Your School-Housed Library Agreement outlines whether to follow school or public library rules when making decisions about a given item in the collection. While agreements differ somewhat, you can usually find this information in the "Collection" or "Collection Policy" section.

Read your Agreement to find out:

• What it says about which entity (School or Public Library) owns which items
• What it says about who can make decisions when an item is challenged

Example:
Here are the sections from the School-Housed Library Agreement for Chauvin Municipal Library that address adding and removing items:

8. Any library item [...] placed in the library by a party once this agreement is in effect, or added to the collection by either party, subsequent to the execution of this agreement, shall remain the property of that party.
[…]
10. Challenged materials shall be dealt with by the respective owner of the challenged material in accordance with his own policy dealing with materials challenged by a third party.

From Chauvin's agreement, we can conclude that that school can go through its own collection and remove books, but only the books the school paid for. The public library manages the items it has purchased, according to its own rules.
 

Review your Public Library’s policies on censorship and challenged materials

Locate and familiarize yourself with your library’s censorship and challenged material policies. NLLS recommends the Public Library Board review both policies to see if they need to be strengthened or clarified.

You can find other example policies in the NLLS Knowledge base for comparison - e.g. here are two from Morinville Community Library.
 

Identify school vs public library items in your collection

Libraries use different techniques to clarify which items in their collection belong to the School and which ones belong to the Public Library.

Options include:

• Shelving the items in separate areas of the library
• Using stickers or stamps to physically mark the items
• Marking the item records in Polaris/Leap (or creating a record set)
• Cataloguing school library items in a different database altogether to Polaris/Leap

Talk to your Consultant if you would like help exploring one (or more) of these options.
 

Be clear about your responsibilities if you work both for the Public Library Board and the School Board

When you are working for the school - i.e. during hours you are paid by the school - school administration may require you to supervise what children borrow from the library collection. Talk to your Principal about these expectations.

During your public library hours - i.e. during hours you are paid by the Public Library Board- you would not supervise/limit what children borrow.

External Links:

• Ministerial Order
• School Library Standards Engagement

Printable Canva Resources:

NLLS has created templates in Canva that Member Libraries can adapt and use when communicating with the public about Intellectual Freedom and Parental Guidance.

• Bookmark style 1
• Bookmark style 2
• Flyer
• Flyer style 2