Philly librarians cheer clarification of social media rule
“There is no intention to stop library branches from communicating with residents," a library executive told workers in a clarifying email Tuesday.
The librarians have not been censored.
At least that’s the message Philadelphia library workers received Tuesday after they staged a coordinated campaign against a new policy implemented by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration that requires the Mayor’s Office vet all social media content put out by city agencies.
“There is no intention to stop library branches from communicating with residents who depend on the libraries’ free services and programs,” Priscilla Suero, the Free Library of Philadelphia’s first deputy director, wrote in an email to employees, which was obtained by The Inquirer.
She further explained that library workers are free to post about “daily issues” such as opening hours and programming “just as they always have with their users.”
Parker’s administration said the Tuesday message didn’t represent a shift in policy, but rather a clarification of the new rule.
”Our policy was never to be involved in these kind of routine matters,” spokesperson Joe Grace said. “I think it was a misinterpretation of our policy, and we were glad that the library issued a clarifying email to all library staff.”
Three weeks ago, the administration told employees in all city departments — in a heavily caps-locked email — that they must send drafts of all external communications from Facebook posts to news releases through the mayor’s Office of Communications. Grace said the idea was to ensure that Parker’s administration is speaking with a “unified voice,” but some city workers privately worried that the policy would result in slow communications from agencies used to managing their own content.
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Library staff at all 54 branches learned earlier this week, in an email from library higher-ups, that the policy would take effect immediately and would require them to seek approval on all “fliers, social media content, and newsletters” — even down to retweets and reposts.
On Monday night, a handful of libraries posted messages on social media warning followers that updates would “not be in real time” and that librarians were unclear what types of content would be “subject to censorship.”
Following the clarification Tuesday, several of those branches cheered.
“This change came about because city workers and residents know how important communication and relationships are and how to fight for what we deserve,” read a Facebook post from the Lovett Memorial Library in Mount Airy. “Social media is one of the easiest & quickest ways to communicate with our communities about library happenings, and being able to do that quickly and efficiently is very important!”