Thank you so much for supporting literary freedom at our local libraries!

Thank you so much for supporting literary freedom at our local libraries!

The local library has been under attack over the past few years by a small group of individuals who wish to push their narrow worldview on everyone else. There is a counter petition to this one that was started by another community member. That update to that petition contains misinformation though. For example, the update mentions the book Lawn Boy as being cataloged in the children’s section, however Lawn Boy has always been categorized as an “adult book” by the Columbia County Libraries. It also mentions the book Flamer, which is a graphic novel, and included with all of the other graphic novels in the adult section. Note that Flamer is recommended for ages 15+ by Common Sense Media, yet this group feels like it’s inappropriate for a room that has books meant for teens. Maybe they just don’t like that both books have LGBTQ+ characters.

Here’s some truth. After the passing of the guidelines by the CC Board of Commissioners on 9/4/2024, the head librarian and cataloger were instructed to begin using the Moms for Liberty Database called BookLooks. This database is frequently used by Moms For Liberty in their book banning efforts throughout the United States. The database often highlights various excerpts without any context in order to claim they are “pornography.” The database also ranks books based on content, such as the presence of an LGBTQ+ character or issues surrounding race or history. It is not solely based on sexual content or the presence of curse words. It also increases its rating based on this group’s specific worldview. Using this database, the library screened titles in the Young Adult Room starting with authors with names that began with “A” and were able to get about halfway through “H” authors before they stopped. The movement of books was interrupted when the county was notified that the regional board would have to make this change in the guidelines since Columbia County is part of a regional system. 42 titles were moved from the Young Adult Section, to the Adult sections of the library without any sort of open or transparent process, before this new policy was paused. However, this was just based on the Moms for Liberty database. If the guidelines are to be used, then each book must be moved based on the same criteria. So, for example, if a book with an LGBTQ+ character is moved to Adult because it contains the “f” word more than once, then that same criteria would need to be applied to every single book in the Young Adult room, rather than just the ones reviewed by BookLooks. Herein lies the problem with the guidelines. They may seem somewhat reasonable on their face, but are deeply problematic in execution. Maybe they would know that if the creators of the guidelines had actually used input from librarians in their creation.

It is Columbia County Library Policy that no children under the age of 12 are allowed in the library unsupervised by an adult. If parents are so concerned about the content in the juvenile/easy/picture books sections of the library, why aren’t they watching their children? The idea that parents would need to now drag their children downstairs to the adult room to access books like Itty Bitty Kitty Corn is absurd. There is a large poster upon entrance of the Young Adult Room that there are books which contain a variety of topics and language that some might find objectionable. If parents have concerns about the content in the Young Adult Room, then they should accompany their teenager and screen the books for anything they find questionable. That seems like a more reasonable policy position than to remove all the books from the Young Adult room. 

I write about this issue extensively on my blog, The Columbia County Observer. Feel free to follow it for more updates. Once again, thanks for your support in fighting for literary freedom!