Quest for card becomes quest for change

A longtime rule preventing pre-school children from having a library card from the Clovis-Carver Public Library is up for discussion. The inspiration is 6-year-old Charlie Mender.

Charlie is the daughter of Clovis attorney Mitch Mender. Her story begins with a visit from her grandmother.

"My mom was visiting and she took (Charlie) to the library to get her card the day before her sixth birthday," Mitch Mender said Monday.

Charlie was excited. But she soon learned city policy required she be 6 – not almost 6 – before receiving a library card.

Then when she went back to the library on her birthday, she was "so sad when she was rejected simply because she couldn't sign her name," her dad said.

"It wasn't really a big deal for our daughter because she went home and learned how to sign her full name and we went back the next day to get her card," Mender said.

But the ordeal troubled Mitch Mender.

"What became obviously clear to me, and my concern, was that the policy was arbitrary and elitest," he said. "Kids who had different disabilities or were just behind in school would not be able to easily get a library card."

He challenged the city policy, established by its library board.

Clovis-Carver Public Library Director Margaret Hinchee said she knows little about the origins of the policy.

"It's been in our circulation procedures since I've been here and that's over 15 years," Hinchee said.

"It's linked to the parent's account because they are ultimately responsible for any and all materials the child checks out," Hinchee said.

It is Mender's contention that since a child's library card is always associated with an adult responsible for the books, the policy has no real purpose. It only serves to discourage children who struggle with writing and reading.

"In my opinion, those are the kids that need access to the library. I am so passionate that the library needs to be an accessible resource for our whole community regardless of education level," Mender said.

A library card, he wrote in an emailed essay, is a powerful symbol of freedom and educational opportunity:

"I remember being so excited when I first got my own library card. I don't want any kid to be denied that simply because they can't sign their name yet."

Hinchee said the policy will be reviewed by the library board when it meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the North Annex of the library at Seventh and Main streets.

City Commissioner Chris Bryant is on the library board. If the board decides to make a change, he said, "It would mean as long as the child's name is on the library card the parent would sign on also and be responsible for materials being returned to the library at the appropriate time."

Hinchee described the issue as something significant in a child's life.

"It's like a right of passage. You're 6, you can sign your first and last name, and you get a library card," she said.

Hinchee said there are exceptions to the policy.

"Should a disabled child come in for a card and can't sign his or her name, of course we'd make accommodations," Hinchee said.

Hinchee said the policy is consistent with that of other public libraries.

"Basically, other libraries all require something, some kind of acknowledgement from the child, such as a signature," Hinchee said.

"Should (the policy) be updated? Possibly," she said.

A change would please Charlie.

"I wanted to be able to get my own books," she told The News. And she hopes her quest to get her own library card will inspire other kids.

"Yes, I hope so. I like learning to read," she said.

What does she like?

"Books about babies and books about cooking," she said.

What does she like to cook?

"Fairy bread and pavlova. Fairy bread is bread with butter and sprinkles and pavlova is a marshmallow thing," Charlie said.