Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Autauga Prattville Library Board of Trustees met Thursday evening for their regularly scheduled meeting with two new members of the board that were appointed by Prattville City Council, Tuesday Feb. 7. However, only one of the newly appointed members was in attendance.
The Prattville City Council appointed Gloria Kuykendall and Quincy Minor to the Library Board. Kuykendall was in attendance for her first board meeting, and Minor had a prior engagement but will be in attendance at the next meeting, Chairman of the Library Board Ray Boles confirmed.
Boles also confirmed the resignation of Christie Sellers during Thursday night’s meeting, and her resignation will be effective immediately. Boles stated a new member will be appointed shortly.
Early in the meeting the board unanimously passed a motion to hire attorney Laura Clark with the Clark Law Group, at $200 an hour.
The Board covered multiple topics from approving minutes from the last three Library Board meetings to the approval of a “trial run” of a vending machine to be placed within the public librarie’s vicinity. A percentage of the proceeds would go to the library, and through the contract all care and stocking of the vending machine will take place through the contracted company.
Andrew Foster, the Autauga Prattville Public Library director, all but led the meeting Tuesday night with a lengthy, but necessary, director’s report. In his report he brought to light topics such as staff pay, financial reports, records requests, developing information on the new Alabama legislature concerning the SB10 bill, grants the library has received as well as the delay of the reconsideration of materials requests.
“We currently have not had huge updates with our reconsideration of materials. We are still at 48 challenges and no new ones since November of 2023. Staff and board members have been working diligently to try and get through those challenges, but it’s a long and slow process. Especially so for challenges for books that are 300 or more pages. It just takes time, it’s a multi-step process,” Foster said.
Foster went on to reiterate that three staff members must read the book in question and staff that do read them, read them on the clock since it is work related. Working with inventory the last few months has also caused a delay with staff members as the library currently has over 80,000 books. Another setback Foster alluded to was having a rotation of new board members monthly, which caused the process to come to a standstill and have to start over.
“We did hit a setback when the previous board resigned, in that everything that they had read was getting ready for review and had to be re-read. We’re working through it and it’s making progress. Unfortunately, with the number of books and the limitations we have it takes some time,” Foster said.
Foster also went on to cover the process in which a reconsideration of materials goes through. First, a committee is formed, consisting of two library staff members and a board member. Each committee of individuals is different. The committee reads the book and gathers information from reputable sources to make a decision on whether the book needs to be recategorized.
“We try to use professional resources as opposed to a mom’s blog that may not necessarily be a reputable source. We try to go for well-established sources. Then we compare those with the material itself as well as the reviews sent in on the material.” Foster said.
The decision is then sent to the person who made the challenge. They then have five business days to ask to appeal to the board. Then the board would make a decision on that material. The decision would then stand for five years.
A Court of Thorns and Roses was one of two books on the agenda Thursday night. The book was originally housed in young adult fiction, but was then moved to new adult fiction while the process was ongoing.
Foster confirmed it was moved due to policies in place while the process was being worked through. The committee decided the more appropriate section for the series should be the Sci-Fi fantasy section.
Foster confirmed there was no appeal within five business days and the book would stay in Sci-Fi fantasy.
Another book was under reconsideration on the agenda, the book Looking for Alaska, which is currently housed in young adult fiction. The teen sticker states the audience is for 16-18 year olds. The board voted to hold the reconsideration until the next board meeting due to new members on the board not being familiar with the book, according to the Boles.
“We’re holding this so that new members of the board will have a chance to wrap their heads around this,” Boles said.
Many members of Read Freely Alabama and other members with opposite opinions of Read Freely spoke during the public hearing portion of Thursday’s meeting citing either their frustrations or appreciations for the board.
