State Library and Local Public Library Relationships: A Case Study of Legislative Conflict Within South Carolina from the Principle/Agent Perspective

ABSTRACT

On July 1, 2001, the South Carolina Governor signed Proviso 72.95 of the Annual Appropriations Act, which required that a public library receiving state funds must equip computers with software to filter the Internet. On July 19, 2001, the South Carolina State Library Board of Trusters voted unanimously not to implement the provision of the Proviso. Within 24 hours of the decision by the State Library Board of Trustees, the leadership of the South Carolina State Legislature threatened to sue the State Library to comply with the law, and to have all the appointed State Library Trustees and the State Librarian removed from their appointed positions. The conflict between the South Carolina State Library and the South Carolina State Legislature over funding of local public libraries signals a change in the relationship between State Library agencies and local public libraries. To understand these changes we must look at the events in South Carolina from the perspective of two areas of political theory. These two areas of political theory are “Agency Theory” and “Regime Theory.”

KEYWORDS:

• State library
• public library
• agent/principle relationship
• Internet filtering