It is the goal of the Board of Trustees of the Agnes Robinson Waterloo Public Library to keep all board members, as well as the Library Director, informed about matters related to the work of the Library Board. However, the Board must be mindful of the requirements imposed by the Nebraska Open Meetings Act and the Nebraska Public Records Laws, particularly as they apply to communications among board members outside normal library meetings.

1. Generally, Library Trustees shall not use email to conduct Library business. Email communication between the Board members is permitted on a limited basis for non-substantive matters such as:

  • Agenda item suggestions.
  • Reminders regarding meeting times, dates, places.
  • Responses to questions posed by the Library Director

2. Email sent between and among trustees regarding such non-substantive matters shall be copied to the Library Director. There is no expectation of privacy for any messages sent or received by email. Any other such email is inherently detrimental to the open meetings process. The Library Board will not utilize such methods for Library communications or to conduct Library business.

3. The Library Director may provide information relating to library business to Library Board members using email. Any response from Library Board members regarding these communications must be sent only to the Library Director (no “reply to all” responses). An appropriate record of these communications will be maintained in an electronic file to ensure compliance with current laws.

4. A Library Board Member may send email to all other Library Board Members with items of passing interest provided that no response is requested or required. Such email messages should clearly state that no response should be made and should be copied to the Library Director for storage.

Approved by the Agnes Robinson Waterloo Public Library Board of Trustees on May 29, 2018.