Library fears proposed legislation

“Once you start censorship, where do you stop?” Gibson Memorial Library board member Alyssa Love asked at a library board meeting Monday. This was a shared sentiment among board members as the library’s assistant director Jordan Foote shared numerous Iowa House and Senate files that would affect the library if passed.

Regarding library funding, Foote explained how House File 284 might cause issues for the library if passed. This file would change the eligibility standards for public libraries to receive state assistance from the program Enrich Iowa.

Enrich Iowa provides financial support for libraries in a couple of ways, including open access, interlibrary loan reimbursement and direct state aid. Public libraries would no longer receive this support if they were dues-paying members of a non-profit organization that advocates and promotes legislation on behalf of libraries. This would include membership to the American Library Association and the Iowa Library Association.

Board members shared their disbelief at this legislation. “It doesn’t make sense,” board president Ann Coulter said. “It makes no sense that they would say you can’t be a member of a professional organization that represents you.”

“They don’t like the fact that ALA and ILA stick up for non-censorship,” board member Connie Maxson added.

While the library is not in either these organizations as an entity, board and staff members are.

“From my understanding, the wording more alludes to the organization itself, the library, not being a member of one of those organizations, but if it does pass, we’ll see how far that extends,” Foote said. “I do see how a personal membership for a staff member could then be considered bleeding into a representative of the library and therefore the library itself.”

If state assistance was taken away from Gibson Memorial, patrons would quickly see the consequences.

“It’s very possible that this would also affect our interlibrary loan and open access funding. We get reimbursed for every interlibrary loan that we send out, and lately we’ve been doing a lot better with those numbers,” Foote said. “And then also with open access, we are able to give anyone that resides in the state of Iowa a library card for free through open access.”

This fiscal year, the library received $2,600 from Enrich Iowa, which it plans to use for new patron furniture in the upstairs stacks. Foote said the money from Enrich Iowa is used each year for a small project the library would not normally be able to fund.

This file passed through subcommittee 2-1 and through the House Education Committee 14-9. Sponsored by Representative Helena Hayes, R-New Sharon, the file has yet to pass the Iowa House of Representatives.

Obscenity

House File 274 and 521, also sponsored by Hayes, would take away the obscenity exemption from public and school libraries. According to Iowa Chapter 728, “obscene material” includes media which “is patently offensive ... and taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, scientific, political or artistic value.”

If these files went forward, public libraries and library staff could be held criminally responsible if a person under the age of 18 were to come into possession of any obscene material.

“An unfortunate amount of it is up to interpretation, so that’s what makes it so dangerous,” Foote said. “To my understanding through that obscenity code, if someone were to make a civil complaint, that staff member could be tried for an aggravated misdemeanor.”

Not only would libraries be in trouble if minors came into possession of this material, libraries would also have to stop displaying any material that could be considered obscene. In order to properly follow these files, small libraries may have to simply give up such material completely.

“It would be pretty devastating for us. We are already stretched pretty thin as a staff, and if something like this were to pass, if we were wanting to keep materials that were considered partly obscene and doing our due diligence in trying to make sure that material wasn’t checked out to minors, that would just take up our whole day,” Foote said. “The easier option would just be removing all of the materials that did contain that obscene, considered by this legislation, obscene themes, I mean we would have hardly anything left. We would have nothing left.”

Senate File 347 would have similar consequences. This file restricts the library’s purchase of any material with any sort of description of a sex act, no matter what age the material is intended for. Failure to follow would result in thousands of dollars in fees to the library and librarian responsible.

“That would literally mean that we would have hardly anything. We would have maybe kids books, mostly picture books, that don’t go into some of those more adult themes,” Foote said. “We do have a few books that touch on more social themes. Those will probably have to be removed. We would be left with probably just kids books and some adult fiction.”

While not all material is meant for all ages, programming specialist Heather Pingree said people shouldn’t feel guilty for what they read.

“Romance is nothing to be ashamed of reading about,” Pingree said. ”I don’t read a lot of LGBTQ, but all those books, people who actually read those or just romance in general, not being able to access those... I would feel, if I was part of that community, I would feel that it was an attack.”

With so many of the library’s materials removed, accessibility to books in the county would plummet.

“We have a lot of patrons in our community that are avid users of the library that are on a fixed income that would not be able to afford all of the books that they read,” Foote said. “[Buying their books] would be the only option for them. It’s a pretty dismal situation.”

While House File 274 has passed subcommittee 2-1 and House Education Committee 14-8, it has not yet passed in the House. Senate File 347 has not passed any committees yet, but is supported by senators Sandy Salmon, Mike Pike, Cherielynn Westrich, Kevin Alons, Doug Campbell and Dennis Guth.

Foote said there are a couple of ways to support Gibson Memorial and other public libraries as the legislation goes through these files.

“Any support is appreciated. Every community member making sure that they make their voices heard and opinions heard, both on a local and state level, I think is incredibly important,” Foote said. “Tell them, call them, email them, send some letters in the snail mail, whatever you have to do to make sure they know how you feel about this and how it affects you personally.”

Another way to show support is by continuing to be a patron of the library.

“Just keep coming and using our services,” Foote said. “I think that’s also just a big part so that we can show people are still using us, they’re still checking out this material that you’re wanting to remove, and just don’t want this legislation to pass but you want to make sure these materials were staying here.”