Petitioned, Iowa library to sort by topic

ORANGE CITY, Iowa — A northwest Iowa library is shifting how it categorizes books after some residents pressed for segregating materials containing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender themes.

The Orange City Public Library’s board decided Tuesday to experiment with grouping books by subject and subcategory rather than alphabetical order by an author’s name.

The library’s board president, Jared Weber, said the changes may start with a trial run on a few subjects over the summer and expand to the rest of the library if patrons like the new system.

The move comes a month after some community members circulated a petition calling on the library to label and separate materials involving gay and transgender topics.

The petition, which received more than 340 signatures, also asked the library to seek public input before acquiring new materials on such topics. The library board will vote next month on revising the library’s policy to require an additional check on acquisitions.