Library battles heat up in Spanish Fort, Athens as new year begins

Alabama’s library battles are heating back up as 2025 kicks into gear, with momentous meetings in Athens and Spanish Fort.

Some Limestone County residents have been complaining for months that they lack representation on the Athens-Limestone Public Library board, which is currently appointed solely by the Athens City Council.

The Limestone County Commission is set to host a special joint meeting with the Athens City Council at 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 6 to change that and create a joint library service instead.

Some patrons had gone so far as to speak before the Alabama Public Library Service board of directors and ask the state agency to step in on the basis of the library sending outdated and erroneous paperwork to APLS to receive its state aid. The paperwork referred to the library as a joint library.

Since Athens-Limestone is the only library system serving Limestone County, some county residents felt left out by not having county-appointed representatives on the library board. 

The county commission specifically had agreed, however, to allow the Athens City Council to be in charge of appointing library board members until some citizens began complaining. 

The Athens-Limestone library board has scheduled a meeting of its own for 4 p.m. to discuss the creation of a joint city-county library board. 

It is not yet clear what the process will be for converting the board makeup and making board appointments. Some libraries in the state have had boards replaced by individuals who have supported efforts to keep LGBTQ+ content away from minors. 

In Spanish Fort, some patrons are planning to speak out about apparent policy changes that are doing just that. 

Patrons have noticed that two board books, “Mama, Mama and Me” and “Papa, Papa and Me” are both now housed in the young adult fiction alongside other books with LGBTQ+ content like “Love is Love” that are made for children.

All three aforementioned books deal with children having same-sex parents and do not contain sexually explicit content.

Patrons upset about these moves told APR they aren’t sure exactly when these moves or new policies were implemented and have not yet been able to obtain and review the minutes for previous meetings. 

The Spanish Fort library board will meet Monday at 3 p.m. to discuss policy changes and will also approve the minutes from its last meeting on Dec. 2. An agenda item includes an executive session “as needed.”