Soon, anyone in Baldwin County will be able to challenge a book on the shelves of the Spanish Fort Public Library.
The board voted to make the change Monday night following an executive session at its January board meeting. Prior policy required challengers to be patrons of the Spanish Fort Library.
The board also discussed its prior policy revisions and how it moved 36 books from the children’s section to the young adult section in an effort to align with state aid requirements from the Alabama Public Library Service.
“Daddy, Papa and Me” appears in the young adult section of the Spanish Fort library
Some books with LGBTQ+ content ostensibly written for children now appear in the young adult section according to patrons, including two board books “Daddy, Papa and Me” and “Mommy, Mama and Me” that depict children with same-sex parents.
Also in the young adult section is “I am Jazz,” a children’s book about transgender youtube personality Jazz Jennings.
“Bathe the Cat” is a children’s book that depicts a family trying to tackle chores and humorously mixing up their tasks, such as “scrubbing the fishes” instead of the dishes and “rocking the rug” instead of the baby. The family depicted has two dads.
“Jacob’s New Dress,” a picture book about a boy named Jacob who wants to wear a dress to school, appears in the young adult section.
“Mr. Watson’s Chickens” is a picture book about Mr. Watson taking any more and more chickens, which become too much to handle. Mr. Watson is married to a man, and the book is in the young adult fiction.
City Attorney David Connor said during the meeting that certain words and topics were searched in the catalog to decide what content to move out of the children’s section and said he believed the move was successful.
The board, which is simply the Spanish Fort City Council, will need to consider moving material out of the young adult section though as well, Connor said, based on the APLS code.
“When we were doing those policies originally, we were focusing more on the children’s section and maybe we should have focused as much attention on the young adults section because the policy directives from the state do say 18 years and under are also to be protected from those types of materials,” Connor said.
