A recent CNN report highlights that even libraries could be affected by the new CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008) legislation.

Libraries are a great resource for children’s books, however, the new CPSIA could end all that. Because libraries lend books to children under the age of 12, it is possible that they are subject to the new CPSIA legislation.

Many older titles coming from publishers that now could be out of business, the burden of testing the books for lead would rest on the shoulders of individual libraries that are already struggling with smaller and smaller budgets. The cost of testing could force libraries to remove untested titles from circulation or perhaps even ban children 12 and younger from libraries.

The American Publishers Association and the American Library Association have urged the Consumer Product Safety Commission to modify the legislation or exempt libraries from the legislation.

Publishers of books and audiobooks are doing everything they can to ensure compliance with the legislation for new books. And manufacturers of DVD cases, 3-ring binders, and other replacement packaging used by libraries, like Sunrise, have confirmed their products are CPSIA certified.

On Monday, February 2, 2009, the CPSC published a statement saying they have issued a one-year “Stay of Enforcement” for the Act. This gives the CPSC time to clarify the confusion surrounding the Act. As a result, libraries have more breathing room to understand the Act as it applies to them and to generate protocols for compliance

Regardless of the stay, libraries can rest assured that replacement packaging purchased previously (and in the future) from Sunrise will help them comply with the new legislation without additional strain to already stretched budgets.

More information on the Stay of Enforcement and how libraries could be affected by the CPSIA:

• American Library Association
• Publishers Weekly
• Library Journal
• CPSC