Public Library Board September 18
In the public comment section of the meeting, the BCRP Local Issues Subcommittee Chairman, Randy Stigall, made the following public comment expressing concern with the Library’s involvement with the American Library Association (ALA) and its radically Marxist president:
By this note, I request the Boone County Public Library Board formally denounce the agenda of the president of the American Library Association, Emily Drabinski. During her participation in the Socialism 2023 Conference in Chicago, September 1-3, she stated: “Public Schools and Local Libraries need to be sites of Socialist organizing and centers of radical agitation. Real opportunities exist to connect what’s happening in public education with what’s happening in libraries.” Two of the many similar ideas presented at Socialism 2023 were advocating the abolishment of the family, replacing fathers and mothers with collective parenting and forming a mass movement to protect children’s right to engage in prostitution. Drabinski, in April, sent to ALA libraries her “Guide to Planning Drag Queen Story Hour.” Citizens of Boone County need to see in a very public way that their local public libraries will not follow ALA leadership in converting the United States into a Socialist country nor expose youngsters to sexually explicit individuals or material.
This public comment was entered into the record and is to be published as part of the September 18 meeting minutes. The Director indicated they have received four complaints regarding the ALA and the radicalism of its leadership. The Director responded that the ALA has no governing authority over the Library. The Library looks at the annual emphasis the ALA publishes every year and may adopt some of the recommendations such as early child development. Otherwise the recommendations are ignored. The Director also indicated that the Library has not adopted the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights and the Freedom to Read Statement, which is borne out by the February 20, 2023, meeting minutes, where in that meeting the Director indicated that these documents had never been adopted as part of Library policy, and upon review the Board agreed to not accept them as part of the Library’s policy.
Not much else of moment was discussed. There were a couple of mini grants applied for and received, one of which was supplying books to the Brighton Women’s Center.
The Walton library will hopefully be ready to formally open in September 2024.
The only matter in policy review was charging out-of-county residents $90 for a Boone County Library card, unless they have a reciprocal agreement with another county library system such as Kenton and Campbell counties in Kentucky and Hamilton County in Ohio.