APLS fires state library director after year of tensions

The Alabama Public Library Service on Thursday voted to immediately terminate Director Nancy Pack moments after she offered to resign at the end of September.

All members of the board voted in favor of Pack’s termination with the exception of Ron Snider, who served as chair of the board last year.

“This is an awfully dark day for Alabama libraries and the people of Alabama who love libraries,” Snider said. “Dr. Pack is being terminated not because of her performance. Because, over her tenure, state aid for local libraries has increased 60 percent. But she’s being terminated as a result of unfounded allegations made about her by extremists, including on this board, who believe she is not sufficiently supporting censorship.”

The board has gradually shifted over the past year as Gov. Kay Ivey appointed new board members who have been outspoken about their concerns that libraries across the state have allowed minors to access content on “transgenderism” as well as sexually explicit material.

That includes a new board member, Kassandra Stevens, who had complained about a pride display at the North Shelby Library and has served as chair of the NSL board since its takeover by Republican lawmakers last year.

Chair John Wahl, who also serves as chair of ALGOP, said that the director needs to be aligned with the direction that the board wants to take the agency.

“I think this is a new and fresh direction that is needed right now in the time that we’re facing with Alabama libraries and I think my goal is to take this and to move in a. new direction with a positive change that helps both this organization, but also our local libraries, accomplish what we need to accomplish for the people of Alabama,” Wahl said.

There have also been other issues with Pack, Wahl said, including negative behavior toward board members and comments critical of lawmakers that leaked on a far-right media site.

“Obviously this agency receives our funding from the state legislature and it’s very important that we respect the Legislature and that we keep a good relationship with them,” Wahl said.

Pack told APR following the meeting that she would not have wanted to continue in the role anyway after some of the actions taken by the board earlier in the meeting, which she said “go against all the tenets of librarianship.”

Librarians at the meeting had mixed reactions to the termination.

One librarian told APR that most librarians in the state would be glad to see Pack no longer serving in the role. Many librarians had been in an uproar late last year after Pack decided to change the way the agency treated federal funding.

But another librarian approached APR and wondered aloud “How could people be so happy to destroy someone’s life?” Individuals who had supported the calls for removing books cheered in an overflow room when Pack was terminated.

Another librarian acknowledged that Pack had not necessarily been the perfect leader of the library system, but said she had an impossible situation to deal with as well.

The board appointed Kelyn Ralya to serve as interim director while the board searches for a new permanent replacement.