- April 25, 2024
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Now that Manatee County commissioners have backed off a proposal to form a 15-person advisory group to oversee its library system's collection of books, members of the Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library are cautiously optimistic they have dodged an oppressive bullet.
Selection of books already is underway for the Lakewood Ranch Library, which is scheduled to open late this year.
On April 18, with concerns about kids having access to material some commissioners deem to be inappropriate, the commissioners decided to expand the advisory board already in place from five members to nine, and to not add a 15-member board that would oversee the overseers.
"The Friends are happy with the decision made," said Sue Ann Miller, president of the Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library. "We saw no reason for another advisory board. But we're fine with adding four new members to the advisory board already in place. That's makes sense because the area is growing.
"We also encourage Commissioner Amanda Ballard to work with our county's Library Services Manager Tammy Parrott and Assistant Manager Lyn Begraft, to learn the procedures already in place when a resident requests the review of a book in the collection."
Does Miller see the commissioners trying to take more control of the libraries in the future?
"We will see what happens," she said.
In a letter to Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library members before the April 18 Commission meeting, Miller wrote, "Looking toward the future, we are concerned that the commissioners are taking steps to control, ban, eliminate books in our public libraries."
The Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library members weren't the only ones concerned about commissioners' proposal to form another advisory group. The overall public sentiment at the meeting was unrest.
Protesters lined up at 8 a.m. in front of the Manatee County Administration Building carrying signs and chanting, “Trust librarians to do their jobs.” Shannon Keever led the group shouting through a megaphone, “What do we want?”
Keever is the communications director for Women’s Voices of SW Florida, a 501c4 organization that fights for human rights and reproductive freedom. What the group wants is to see commissioners leave book selections for the new Lakewood Ranch library up to the professionals.
“This is unprecedented. We have a library advisory board right now, and it consists of five members, three of whom are appointed by this board of county commissioners already,” Keever said. “So the question comes in as, ‘Why do we need another advisory board?’”
Ballard was appointed as the library liaison. It’s not an entirely new position for the Commission, but it's been several years since a commissioner filled the role. A tweet by Ballard on April 15 was a precursor to the contentious atmosphere at the meeting.
She tweeted, “(The advisory board) will also assist our librarians in choosing materials that resonate with our community…it’s literally the antithesis of “book banning.” But it’s easier for intellectually lazy leftists to scream fascism rather than honestly engage with differing points of view.”
From her commission seat, Ballard called one of the protesters “cute” for reading “The Art of War” during the meeting, which only added to the vitriol in the room. But she did listen to what the public was saying and agreed a second board could be redundant.
Commissioner George Kruse added that advisory boards are a pain to set up. He was also the only commissioner who pushed back against the motion that also included genre labels and parental consent forms for children 16 and under when checking out certain materials.
When questioned by the public, Ballard made clear her stance was not against the LGBTQ community, but rather introducing sexuality in general when it comes to children.
“The library website says that if there’s a kid 12 and under in our library, they’ll basically call the cops if they can’t find a parent in five minutes,” Kruse said, “So you don’t have random little kids wandering around pulling porn off of our shelves. That’s just not how our library works. It sounds like we may have more of a parenting problem than a library problem, if that’s the case.”
Kruse also said the labels were overly complicated, but was open to a similar rating system to that of movies rated G to R. His statement on parenting resonated with the opposition. The general feeling was that reading selections should be made by parents, not commissioners. Additional objections came in from librarians.
“The accrediting organization, the American Library Association, was formed in 1876. It has been the longest in the world for a library association,” said Jan Riggs, the board president for the Friends of the Island Library. “If you’re a Manatee County librarian, you must have a master’s degree from an ALA accredited university or college, and one of the commissioners said that ALA is a woke institution, and it’s not.”
Riggs was referring to Commissioner James Satcher’s comments from the Feb. 21 work session where he criticized the ALA and stated he’d be “100% in favor of leaving the organization at a future voting meeting.” Currently, there are no public libraries in the state that are not affiliated with ALA.
In the end, parental consent forms and genre labels were omitted from the motion, and the idea for an entirely new board was nixed. Instead, duties of the board will expand to include overseeing the book collections.
Selecting books for a public library is a year-round, full-time job and can require multiple staff members depending on the size of the collection.
“It really is about what the public wants to read,” Parrott said. “We follow trends, and we buy what we believe the public is going to be interested in — things that get good reviews and building on existing, known, popular authors.”
In the Manatee County Library system, reading every book cover to cover isn't feasible, so librarians look to trends and reviews to guide their choices.
They also rely on the library's advisory board, which will be given additional assistance with the four new members.
“We’re excited to have more members of the public engaging with the library,” Parrott said. “And even if people are not on the library advisory board, it is an open meeting and anyone is welcome to attend.”
The current advisory board has five members, three of which are appointed by the commission. The remaining two seats are appointed by the cities of Bradenton and Palmetto. Members serve four-year terms.
Ballard’s concern for diversity amongst the board came from the fact current members are chosen by geography alone. The commission’s appointees need to live within the following three areas: Unincorporated Manatee County, Manatee County at large and the barrier islands.
Ballard wants to see members chosen by their roles in the community. The original 15-person board called for parents, teachers, librarians and retirees.
Current members are a mix of working professionals and retirees—a CPA and homeschooling parent, a retired librarian, a retired auto dealership owner, a local construction business owner and a data analyst.
