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Libraries required to add guidelines for children’s materials

By Kris Harrell

The Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) recently approved amendments to its policies, adding requirements for selection criteria for minor patrons and guidelines for determining age-appropriate materials. Libraries across the state will be required to follow these new guidelines to qualify for state aid in the coming months. 

The new guidelines will impact facilities like the Greenville-Butler County Public Library, which receives around $20,000 in state aid. Library Director Kevin Pearcey explained how state monies are used to supply library resources. 

“Ocasionally we’ll get some additional funding, but mostly [materials are] what that money goes for, “Pearcey said. “It goes for our materials; we use that to purchase books, we use that to provide programs to our patrons. We use that especially during summer reading programs… but the majority of it we use for materials, for books that we purchase.”

Within the written material selection policy 520-2-2-.03 (Library Establishment, Policy and Service Requirements), APLS added an amendment to include “section criteria for minors and how they are safeguarded from sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth.” 

Additionally, the APLS added amendments for public libraries to have approved written guidelines to:

* Ensure library sections designated for minors under the age of 18 remain free of material containing obscenity, sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth;

* Prevents the purchase or otherwise acquiring of any material advertised for consumers under the age of 18 which may contain obscenity, sexually explicit, or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth; and

* Establish [a rule that] library cards for minors under the age of 18 must require parental approval before a minor’s card is permitted to check out materials from the library’s adult sections. 

Age-appropriate materials regarding religion, history, biology or human anatomy do not violate the new criteria regarding library sections.

These new guidelines manifest as additions in the Greenville library’s collection development policy, which repeats the new guidelines with APLS, as well as defining what material will be considered explicit content and inappropriate for minors.

“I’m a parent – I have two girls and I’m aware of what they’re reading,” Pearcy said. “I want to know what they’re reading, but we also understand that we want the library to be a welcoming place to everyone. 

“We don’t want it to be a situation where people are afraid of coming to the library or they’re worried about it. We’ve never had that case and we’ve never had a problem. ‘We’ve never had a challenge. We’ve never had anything since I’ve been here.” 

Parents of children under the age of 18 will need to sign paperwork confirming whether  they consent for their children to have access to the library’s full collection. This includes new library card holders and those that held a card prior to the new guidelines.

Additionally, children under the age of 18 will need parental approval to sign up for a library card. Previously, minors above the age of 16 were able to sign up for a library card without parental approval.  

These new guidelines will be enforced at the Greenville Public Library in the coming weeks. Pearcy said he hopes to host an open meeting to discuss these changes to policies in the future. 

“We just ask parents and guardians to bear with us through these administrative changes that the State is requiring us to do,” Pearcey said. “This is a State requirement, and we have an obligation to meet that state requirement if we want to continue to receive a state aid check… This is the money we use to bring educational programs to the library.”