By Judith Roberts
The Lincoln Parish Library Board of Control will be busy for the next month as they work to amend two bills that have been proposed by the state legislature.
Last night, the board of control voted to oppose and amend House Bill 25 and Senate Bill 7.
Bill Jones, a member of the Board, addressed each bills separately in the special-called meeting Thursday, March 9.
“I asked the president (of the board, Amy Miller) to call this special meeting to consider these two bills,” Jones said. “My conclusion was they are serious. They would seriously damage our library as well as every other public library in the state.”
Jones said his concerns were that HB 25 stated that Board members would serve at the pleasure of the governing authority, which, in the library’s case, is the Lincoln Parish Police Jury.
“That means that the Police Jury could remove any or all Board members at any time, for any reason — or no reason,” Jones said. “It also means that the Police Jury could keep someone on as a Board member for far longer than five years—it could be a lifetime appointment if the Police Jury so chose.”
The second issue was that the Police Jury would have the ability to regulate and oversee the Board, its officers, employees and the library itself.
“I really want to stress this – (the Police Jury would) oversee not only the Board of Control, but its officers, its employees and the library,” he said. “That is what this bill would do. It would give Police Jury the unfettered authority to do this.”
The third change proposed in HB 25 is that the Board of Control could not act inconsistent with whatever ordinances the Police Jury chose to enact.
“Here’s the practical effect of HB25: it could terminate any board member at any time for any reason…hire and fire library employees, and they could pass ordinances that dictated to the library what materials it could or could not offer to the public. It could enact any policies it chooses to.”
Jones said he didn’t see any good reason for the bill.
“I don’t see the problem it’s trying to solve,” he said. “This library’s been here 83 years by my count. This library has been recognized as one of the best in the state consistently over the years. I don’t see a good reason to change that management structure.”
During public comments, Courtney Hall, Police Jury administrator, added that the Police Jury does not yet have a position on the bill, but that the Police Jury and the library has always had a great relationship.
Jones echoed those sentiments. “Historically we’ve had a good working relationship with the Police Jury,” he said.
When put to a vote, the Board unanimously agreed to oppose the bill and create a committee to construct an amended version to propose to lawmakers. Richard Durrett, Lincoln Parish Police Jury Ex-Officio and member of the Board, was absent. It was noted at the beginning of the meeting that he was attending police jury administration meetings in south Louisiana.
The vote went the same for Senate Bill 7, which attempts to protect minors from sexually-explicit materials.
“This bill seeks to aid and enable parents to guide and direct the reading, listening and viewing choices of their minor children,” Jones said. “All public libraries share that goal, and all public libraries have policies that group library materials by age categories. Assisting and advising parents about age-appropriate materials for their children is a major part of the work of public libraries.
“At the Lincoln Parish Library, the first section one sees when entering the library is our large children’s section, which has its own dedicated staff who are constantly helping to parents in selecting materials for their children and teens.”
Jones said age appropriateness distinction works; labeling something as sexually explicit does not. He stated that many classical works, from Shakespeare to Greek and Roman mythology to the Bible could be labeled as sexually explicit under the proposed bill.
“My recommendation would be to amend bill to switch from (the term) sexually explicit to age appropriate, which is consistent with professional librarian experience,” he said.
The board voted unanimously to agree, and now the work begins.
“We are 30 days out from convening of Legislature,” Jones said. “If we decide to take position on these bills, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.
“These things are on a fast track, and if we’re going to have a say, we’ve got to act.”
