The Ozark Dale County Library board has strengthened its policies after a month-long controversial battle over books in the library.

This comes after a few meetings of public outcry some voicing their concerns about LGBTQ-themed books and sexually explicit content being in the young adult section for ages 12 to 17 and even threats from the mayor to defund the library if the books were not moved.

The policy changes they have drawn up will now put more responsibility on the parent or legal guardian in order to keep a close eye on what their child is checking out of the library to read.

“We tried to take into consideration everyone’s concerns, the parents, the community just to develop new policy more to clarify our policy it wasn’t really a new thing just to make sure parents have tools they can use to determine what their children are going to read that was the most important to us,” Chairman Liz Delaney said.

As for the books in the young adult section, all books will now have a sticker on the spine of it showing the appropriate age that the author or publisher authorizes.

“It will all still be young adults but it will either say 14-18 or 14 and under and the parent will be able to see that on the sticker and know the content may contain things they may not want their child to see so it will help them pick,” She said.

There are also changes made related to current and new library cards for minors up to 18 years old. A parent or legal guardian must sign an application with a disclaimer about how that parent is responsible for the materials the child is reading.

“The new library card policy will let them decide which ages their children can go to each section if you want just the children, children and young adult, or children, young adult, and adult content,” She added.

If the child is trying to check out a book in a prohibited section, the system will deny the checkout.

If the parent does not sign the disclaimer, the parent will have to check out the book on his or her library card. Minors cannot check out a book using their parent’s card without their presence.

The last change the library board made was to the unattended child policy — if you are 13 and under, you must have a parent or guardian 19 years or older with you in the library.

Delaney said if the parent or child comes across a problem with the book after reading it in its entirety, their reconsideration forms are still available to be filled out, so the book can be reviewed by a randomly qualified three-person committee for further action.

“It was just filled out for the first time in library history, so it’s all new to us too,” Delaney said.

Citizens at the meeting praised the board for their changes and compromising with the community.

“I hope that those who forced this issue will stop now and let the library function as it should without letting this controversy keep cropping up,” Jubal Mathis said.

The library will be closed for some time on Thursday as staff will be working on the new implementations.

Source : WDHN

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