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Library Byelaws

Made under Section 19 of the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964

  1. In these Byelaws, unless the context otherwise requires:
    a. the Act’ means the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964;
    b. ‘the Library Authority’ means the Leicestershire County Council;
    c. ‘library’ means any library for the time being maintained by the Library Authority for the purpose of its functions under the Act and includes a vehicle when being used for those purposes;
    d. ‘the Librarian’ means the person appointed as such by the Library Authority or,in his absence, any other person authorised by the Library Authority to act on his behalf;
    e. "library officer’ means the Librarian or any other person employed by the library authority for the purposes of its functions under the Act;
    f. ‘book’ includes any and every book, journal, pamphlet, music score, manuscript, picture, print, photograph, engraving, etching, deed, map, chart, plan, gramophone record, film and any other article of a like nature forming part of the contents of the Library or lent to any person by or on behalf of the Library Authority.
  2. An act necessary for the proper execution of his duty by a library officer shall not be deemed to be a contravention of these Byelaws.
  3. A person shall not give a false name or address for the purpose of entering any part of the library or for the purpose of using any facilities provided in connection therewith.
  4. A person who is offensively unclean in person or in dress, or who is suffering from an offensive disease, shall not enter or use the library.
  5. Except with the consent of a library officer, a person shall not:
    a. cause or allow any dog (other than a guide dog accompanying a blind person) or other animal belonging to him or under his control to enter or remain in the library or
    b. bring into any part of the library a wheeled vehicle or conveyance (other than an invalid chair).
  6. A person shall not, after proper warning by a library officer, remain in the library after the time fixed for its closing.
  7. A person shall not, unless duly authorised, take any book from the library. A person shall be guilty of a breach of this byelaw who attempts to take a book past a checkout point without it being issued in accordance with the Library's procedures or without being given permission by a Library officer to do so.
  8. A person shall not carelessly or negligently soil, tear, cut, deface, damage, injure, or destroy any book or the furniture, fittings or other contents of the library.
  9. Except with the consent of a library officer, a person shall not make a tracing of any portion of a book.
  10. A person who:
    a. after the end of the period for which it was lent has the charge of possession of a book borrowed from the library or from any body or person acting on behalf of the Library Authority, and
    b. after having been requested in writing by the Library Authority to deliver it up to that Authority, has failed to do so within a period of fourteen days after the date of the request, and
    c. has not paid to the Library Authority in respect thereof an agreed sum by way of compensation shall not, except with the consent of the Librarian, borrow any further book from the library.
  11. A person from whom any sum is due to the Library Authority by reason of a charge made under Section 8(2) of the Act in respect of failure to return a book before the end of the period for which is was lent shall not, except with the consent of the Librarian, borrow any book from the library after having been notified in writing by the Library Authority of the amount due.

  12. i. A person having the charge or possession of any book which the Library Authority is entitled to have returned to it shall deliver it up to that Authority within fourteen days of the service upon him by the Authority of a notice requiring him to do so.
    ii. For the purposes of this Byelaw, a notice may be served upon any person by delivering it to him, or by leaving it at his usual or last known place of residence, or by sending it by registered post or recorded delivery service addressed to him at that place.
  13. A person shall not behave in a disorderly manner in the library or use violent, abusive or obscene language therein.
  14. A person shall not spit in the library.
  15. A person shall not, after a warning by a library officer, persist in sleeping in the library.
  16. A person shall not engage in audible conversation in any part of the library set apart as a reference department or for reading after having been requested not to do so by a library officer.
  17. A person shall not wilfully obstruct any library officer in the execution of his duty or wilfully disturb, obstruct, interrupt or annoy any other person in the proper use of the library.
  18. A person shall not without consent of the Librarian display, distribute, affix or post any bill, placard or notice in, to or upon any part of the library.
  19. A person shall not, without the consent of the Librarian, offer anything for sale in the library.
  20. A person shall not lie on the furniture or fittings of the library or on the floor thereof, except with the consent of the Librarian, on the floor or any part of the library for the time being set apart for the use of children.
  21. A person shall not smoke or strike a light in any part of the library set apart for the use of the public, except in any part thereof for the time being used as a restaurant or in which, when it is being used for an educational, cultural or other event under section 20 of the Act, the Library Authority allows smoking.
  22. A person shall not, except with the consent of a library officer, partake of refreshment in the library, except in any part thereof which is for the time being used as a restaurant or in which when it is being used for an educational, cultural or other event under section 20 of the Act, the Library Authority allows the partaking of refreshments.
  23. Except with the consent of the Librarian a person shall not cause or allow any apparatus for the reception of sound broadcasting or for the reproduction of sound to be operated in any part of the library set apart for the use of the public.
  24. Every person who shall offend against any of the foregoing Byelaws (other than Byelaws 10 and 11) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the sum of twenty pounds.
  25. Every person who, within the view of a library officers, contravenes any of the foregoing Byelaws may be excluded or removed from the library by such an officer if:
    a. his name and address are unknown to and cannot readily be ascertained by the officer, or
    b. from the nature of the contravention or from any other fact of which the officer may have knowledge or be credibly informed there is reasonable ground for belief that his continuance in the library may result in another contravention of the Byelaws or that his exclusion or removal from the library is otherwise necessary for the proper use and regulation thereof.
  26. On the coming into operation of these Byelaws, the Byelaws relating to Libraries which were made by:
    a. the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of Leicester on the fifteenth day of August 1957 and confirmed by the Minister of Education on the seventh day of October 1957;
    b. the Mayor, Aldermen and burgesses of the Borough of Loughborough on the eighth day of March 1966 and confirmed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science on the tenth day of May 1966, and
    c. the Hinckley Urban District Council on the twenty-forth day of April 1970 and confirmed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science on the twelfth day of June 1970:
    shall be revoked.
THE COMMON SEAL of the
LEICESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
was hereunto affixed this 18th day of July 1985
P. Sayer
Assistant County Clerk
Confirmed under the Official Seal of the Secretary of State for Education and Science on 15th July 1974
S. A. Williams
Authorised under Section 3 of the Education Act 1944
An amendment to byelaw no. 7 was confirmed on behalf of the Chanellor of the Duchy of Lancaster by the Head of the Office of Arts and Libraries.
R.W.L. Wilding
September 1985

further information
Contact: County Hall Library
Telephone: 0116 305 6988
E-Mail: libraries@leics.gov.uk
Last Updated:
23 January 2004
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