Two board members’ terms of service and a national focus on LGBTQ-related materials at libraries converged in Christian County, where an extraordinary appointment hearing will be held on July 3.
On that day, a public meeting will be held to name two persons to fill two open spots on the Christian County Library District’s Board of Trustees. The terms of President Matthew Suarez and current Treasurer Paula Bishop will expire at the end of July.
Both board members have re-applied to serve in the volunteer positions, but so have 21 other people.
“I don’t think the library has ever had that many applicants,” said Christian County Presiding Commissioner Lynn Morris. “It shows a real serious interest in the selection process.”
Commission taking a more active role
Part of the reason for the surge deals with the county commission itself. It is taking a more active role in filling the positions on the library’s oversight board.
In previous years, the library board has reviewed applicants and made recommendations to the commission for approval, Christian County Library Executive Director Renee Brumett explained. Both Suarez and Bishop are completing partial terms, having been appointed to fill vacancies. Seats on the board are unpaid, volunteer positions.
“In the past, if a board member wanted to continue serving, the seated board would agree to recommend a reappointment to commissioners,” Brumett said. “That’s what we had been planning to do this year.”
Morris, however, said he heard from people who did not think that was a good idea. He also heard from people with concerns about the placement of LGBTQ-related library materials in public view.
In light of Suarez and Bishop not serving full terms, Morris said that the commission decided to open up the selection process.
“I’m glad (Suarez and Bishop) are going to apply,” Morris said. “They have equal opportunity, and that is important to me. I didn’t want to shut them out.”
Part of national movement
LGBTQ-related issues have been in the spotlight, as people against public exposure of such issues have rallied lawmakers and governmental boards to either remove or limit public access to such materials.
Missouri has seen its policies and regulations change recently:
- A law passed by the General Assembly prohibits elementary and secondary educators from providing explicit sexual materials to students, and classifies doing so as a class A misdemeanor. This new law led Nixa librarians to ask the board for reconsideration of three titles. Two of them: “Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel” and “Blankets,” were removed from the high school’s library on Tuesday during a special board meeting; “Maus” was allowed to remain available for checkout.
- A rule passed by Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft placed new regulations that generally prohibit state funding from going toward a library system that does not consider whether materials are appropriate for minors. The rules require increased clarification of intended age groups, and expand that clarification to events, displays and presentations.
The debate over such access has reached Christian County. The Nixa School District in 2022 and in June voted to remove titles from its high school library based on such feedback, and its dealings with the issue have been featured in The New Yorker and The Washington Post.
Morris said those current events are likely at the heart of the current surge in interested applicants.
“There are a lot of things going on, not just in the county, but all over the state, with the discussion about age-appropriate materials,” Morris said. “A lot of us love our county libraries. It’s a great system that serves the community well, but we are getting a lot of people not liking some of the decisions being made.”
While the Christian County Library District is separate from the Nixa School District, Brumett says some of the same hot button issues are reaching the library district’s four branches. While Brumett has taken some concerns and complaints from patrons about LGBTQ-related materials, she said they represent a minority of the people who use the library on a daily basis.
“I think what we’ve seen in the library mirrors what we’re seeing in schools and in communities,” Brumett said. “But on a daily basis interacting with patrons using the library, we aren’t experiencing those complaints. We have ways for people to address those concerns, and managers make sure they are getting feedback about those.”
The Christian County Library’s branches are in Nixa, Ozark, Clever and Sparta. In 2022 it welcomed more than 144,225 visitors, circulated 361,186 physical and digital materials and had 20,766 active cardholders, according to its annual report. Brumett said the library is on track to pass all those benchmarks by the end of 2023.
Rejection of rating system
The library district and its board recently tackled one such request from patrons seeking to limit exposure of children to LGBTQ-related issues. After patrons requested a rating system for books, library staff members investigated how easily one could be established.
The library’s board ultimately decided against such a system, however, during its meeting on June 20. Board members said that the library has neither the money nor staff to take on reviewing the library’s titles, and none of the existing systems have enough objectivity or balance for the library’s needs.
Library staff members would have had to do the job of reviewing more than 70,000 titles, about 28,000 of which are children’s and young adult titles, Suarez said during Tuesday’s meeting.
During that public meeting, seven people spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting. All seven spoke in favor of limiting children’s access to books dealing with LGBTQ issues. Several of citizens spoke in favor of setting up a rating system, while others wanted to see the library place such materials in a separate area.
The rejection of that rating system may come into play when the Christian County Commission considers applicants on July 3.
Morris said people who have complained to him about such materials at the libraries say they want a little more help identifying and rating a much smaller pool of books.
“The number of books they are talking about is more than 300, and to me, that’s not a lot of books,” Morris said. “They are not asking the library board to rate them like a movie, and they are not asking for all those titles to be reviewed. That seems to be not a monumental task.”
According to research Brumett presented to board members, consultations with attorneys showed that a partial review could open the library up to First Amendment violations and the threat of lawsuits.
“By only labeling a few, it could lead people to assume any book without a label has none of that content,” Brumett wrote to board members in that documentation. “To avoid subjectivity and confusion, this proposal is an all-or-nothing matter, which requires a comprehensive, objective system.”
Next steps for the library system
Suarez and Bishop, while filling partial terms, were part of a board that helped make “phenomenal progress” for the library system, Brumett said, and praised the board for its work.
“The library board has accomplished a lot over these last two years,” Brumett said. “We were able to purchase the building we had been leasing for the Nixa branch, they approved a new strategic plan and navigated the ending of special pandemic procedures. They have handled a lot.”
Morris said the three county commissioners will narrow down the pool of applicants to a handful during the last week of June. A residency requirement will force some to be rejected — Suarez holds a seat for an area that represents the Ozark area, and Bishop’s seat serves the southern part of Christian County that encompasses Highlandville and Spokane.
Those finalists will be voted on during the July 3 meeting, and the terms of the members will begin on Aug. 1. Morris said each candidate for the open positions will be evaluated fairly, and will be asked the same questions.
Brumett said she hoped that commission members choose board members who will help fulfill the library’s mission of building community access for all of its patrons, and who support the about 60 staff members who help make that mission happen.
“I would hope board members would be supportive and respectful of all staff,” Brumett said. “That is something we have always had. With the different roles across the board, one of the most critical components is a board who is supportive of them as people and as workers.”
