|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Ozark-Dale has closed its doors for the last month while staff have been poring over books in the children and young adult sections to ensure they comply with new policies.
The library board passed new policies in July in an attempt to align with new state aid requirements from the Alabama Public Library Service that went into effect on July 15. Although the code is now in effect, libraries have until the end of September to update policy to get state aid on their regular schedule, and until June 2025 to align policies to still get the entirety of their 2024-2025 state aid.
The Ozark-Dale Library has been one of the libraries that has faced controversy over books in its children and youth sections, with Mayor Mark Blankenship ordering library director Karen Speck to remove all LGBTQ+ content from the youth sections or potentially face having the library defunded.
That threat led to an explosive library board meeting on whether LGBTQ+ books are appropriate for those sections, while members of the city council said they would not defund the library.
With about 90 percent of the books in the section reviewed, Speck said Friday that no books have been moved due to being “obscene, sexually explicit, or (otherwise) deemed inappropriate for minors.”
Speck and administrative assistant Joni Wood are reviewing 70 books in the section due to a lack of online resources including reviews to help determine the content.
During the review process, some books were removed due to irreparable damages or being unnecessary duplicates. Books missing or overdue for more than six months were also deleted from the catalog.
Some books were also moved from children to teen or teen to children based on cataloging errors, the library said in a statement.
And some books were moved from teen to adult if they were “high school required reading and belonged in the adult section.”
While the staff is confident that the policy complies with the new state aid requirements and that the youth collection matches the policy, the library encourages anyone with disagreements to speak with Speck and utilize the reconsideration of materials process if needed.
