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APLS Board to Evaluate 8000+ Titles for Compliance With State Code

September 17 Board meeting will address process for assessing titles

Image —BC/ALPolitics.com

The Alabama Public Library Service Board will meet on Thursday, September 17 at 1:00 PM at the APLS main office, 6030 Monticello Dr, Montgomery, AL 36117.

Among the items to be considered at that meeting will be some 8,840+ books in libraries across the State which may be in violation of the recently-amended State code. The code requires libraries that wish to continue to receive State and federal funds to:

(i) approve written guidelines that ensure library sections designated for minors under the age of 18 remain free of material containing obscenity, sexually explicit, or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth. All materials containing such content must be weeded out of the library's collection or relocated to an adult section. Under this rule, any materials regarding transgender procedures, gender ideology, or the concept of more than two biological genders shall be considered inappropriate for children and youth. Age-appropriate materials regarding religion, history, biology, or human anatomy should not be construed to be against this rule.

(j) approve written selection criteria for minors that prevents the purchase or otherwise acquiring of any material advertised for consumers under the age of 18 which contain obscenity, sexually explicit, or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth. Age-appropriate materials regarding religion, history, biology, or human anatomy should not be construed to be against this rule.

Board member Amy Minton had this to say about these questionable works:

“There are 8,842+ listings on transgender and gender identity that need to be evaluated, moved to the adult section or removed — 'weeded out' — prior to Alabama Public Libraries receiving federal and State funding.

“After two separate five hour hearings and over 9,000 Alabama citizens expressing overwhelming support of the updated Alabama Administrative Code regarding the use of Alabama tax dollars, it is now time to begin the process of helping our libraries identify these books that go against the Alabama State Code so that ALL of our public libraries will qualify for Federal and State funding in October.

“Click on the following links (Ed. note: see below) from some card catalogs in public libraries across the State. The hard work of our Alabama librarians is greatly appreciated but based on this information there are many Alabama Public Libraries that could be out of compliance.

“The APLS Board is seeking to appoint an assistant to advise Alabama Public Libraries during this time of transition as there are currently many books that remain in the minor sections of the library, indicating movement of these books voluntarily hasn't occurred or they are unaware. If any parent finds a book in the children or young adult sections, please help identify these books by first notifying the Librarian and completing your local library's book challenge form. Then, if the books are not moved or removed, please bring it to the attention of the APLS State Library Board.”

ALPolitics.com reached out to APLS Board Chairman John Wahl for his thoughts on this issue.

“I think the 8000+ titles that Amy Minton has brought up shows just how important this issue is, and why the APLS Board changed the code to address this issue,” Wahl said. “Parents across Alabama were coming into contact with these books and were concerned about the impact on their children. And, the APLS Board made it a priority that we listen to those concerns, that we put Alabama families first. We addressed it, and that's exactly what we did with this code change.

“As we move forward, we're going to be keeping Alabama families first, and it's important for us that local libraries have the clear guidance they need when working on not just their code changes, but also which books need to be looked at to be in compliance with State code.”

We then asked Chairman Wahl if there would be a process established to evaluate these books of concern, and if he could comment on what that process would look like.

Wahl answered, saying that the Board is “still in the works on a potential hire at APLS to address this issue. As that moves forward, we'll be getting a more firm process in place. But I think at the end of the day, the most important thing for APLS and for the Board members is that we provide local libraries with the information they need to be in compliance, so they do not lose any State funding.”

ALPolitics.com then asked if, when these books were reviewed, if there would be a publically-available, transparent source of information about which books were acceptable, which were unacceptable, and why they were deemed as such.

“Well, throughout this process, we felt it's important, rather than looking at exact book titles, we look at the content within the books,” Wahl answered. “The reason for that is because new books come on the market every day, and it's not about specific books, but it's about content. Do those books contain sexually explicit material? Do they contain inappropriate content for children? And if the answer is yes, that content meets the definition of sexually explicit, or transgender, that content is what triggers the code. It’s not necessarily a book title, and that's important to remember through this process.”

“Just like the movie rating process or video game rating process, it's the content found in the book, not the book itself, that is that that falls under State code. So we want to look at this through that process. You know, we're not talking about a book being inappropriate. If there are excerpts from the book that contain explicit material, that would trigger the State code, where that book should be moved to the adult section.

We then asked for any final thoughts that Chairman Wahl had on this process.

Wahl said, “the APLS Board listened to the people of the State through two public comment periods, where the overwhelming response was in favor of moving sexually explicit content to the adult section and making sure that we put parents in control of what their children are exposed to, and the APLS Board is going to continue that as our priority. There is no compromise and there is no backing down when it comes to protecting our children from sexual conduct.”

Links to the titles in question, as provided by Board member Minton:

1. Birmingham Public Libraries-

914 books - Transgender

https://jeffa.na.iiivega.com/search?query=transgender&searchType=everything&pageSize=10

1,627 books - gender identity

https://jeffa.na.iiivega.com/search?query=gender%20identity&searchType=everything&pageSize=10

2. Huntsville-Madison Public Library-

1,127 books -Transgender

https://catalog.hmcpl.org/Union/Search?view=list&lookfor=transgender&searchIndex=Keyword&searchSource=local

1,380 books- gender identity

https://catalog.hmcpl.org/Union/Search?view=list&showCovers=on&lookfor=gender+identity&searchIndex=Keyword&searchSource=local

3. Baldwin County Collective- Fairhope Public Library