Montgomery County panel to decide on books
Montgomery County commissioners will put the decision of what books and materials will be available to children in county libraries in the hands of a commissionerappointed citizen’s committee instead of librarians.
The five-member committee will only address the materials available in the library for children, young adults and parenting.
The policy changes apply to all seven Montgomery
County Memorial Library System libraries.
‘We are all in favor of free speech’
In a 3-1 vote Tuesday, Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley was the nay vote and Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack was absent from the meeting.
“The policy that we passed today concerning the reconsideration of books is primarily for the purpose of ensuring that books are put into the age-appropriate sections of the library,” Judge Mark Keough said. “Contrary to what was said by those who opposed, we are all in favor of free speech in our intention is not to have books thrown out of the library; however, that is a decision for the citizens of this county to make. The reconsideration committee, when a book is brought to their attention, can vote to leave it as it is, put it to a more restrictive or even less restrictive area, and at last resort to remove the book, if by unanimous vote of the committee.”
Keough said librarians will still decide on all adult books and materials.
Riley said he is concerned about the policy restricting books from the public as soon as a person submits a challenge to the committee. He also said he did not like that a person challenging a book did not have to be a resident of Montgomery County.
Keough said that is for the residents of The Woodlands neighborhood of Creekside Park in Harris County who use Montgomery County libraries.
Age appropriate
Precinct 1 Commissioner Robert Walker said the county is not banning books, rather the goal is to ensure books with mature content are in the adult section, where parents can make the decision to check them out for their children if desired, and not for children to have direct access to those materials.
“We are not talking about putting them out of the library,” Walker said. “We are talking about not making them accessible to children.”
In July commissioners tightened restrictions on access to library books with LGBTQ+ themes by children younger than 18 and agreed to add more conservative-based books to shelves after receiving dozens of complaints from residents.
In two separate motions during a July 11 meeting, the court gave Purchasing Director Gilbert Jalomo authority to expand the county’s book vendor list for access to more conservative book themes and asked Library Director Rhea Young to group books by genre within the children’s section, labeled and restrict access to sexually explicit books to those older than 18.