HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — One Houston County lawmaker says libraries are no longer a safe space for children.
Republican Senator Larry Walker from Perry has proposed a bill aimed at separating Georgia libraries from the American Library Association (ALA).
Walker sent 13WMAZ a statement that said, in part, "It is our responsibility to keep public libraries a welcoming place for literacy and learning not political indoctrination centers for radical agenda promoting, sexual behavior and socialist anti-American rhetoric."
A statewide advocacy group, Progress Georgia, said Walker is misrepresenting the facts about libraries, including Houston County's.
Tonya Blackmon visits a library twice a week to use their resources and says each time she utilizes the staff's help.
"Even today, when I had to do a Zoom meeting, one of the staff went above and beyond to make sure I had the proper resources," she said.
Librarians receive certification and training through the American Library Association.
"It helps us keep up to date with technology, finance, human resources, community needs, and more," Houston County Library Director J. Sara Paulk said.
The American Library Association says it's the oldest professional organization for librarians. Now, some Georgia lawmakers are looking to cut ties.
"The Senate bill will hurt librarians," Paulk said.
It's led by Sen. Walker who says the ALA pushes radical political agendas and is worried one Houston County library bought LGBTQ+ and radical books for children.
In 2022, Paulk says she wrote a grant to the ALA for the Covid Library Relief Fund. She says the library board was supportive of the grant.
Paulk says they bought e-audio and e-books for adults and young adults. No children's books were bought with the funds.
The material was for an event called Empathy Through Fiction, where titles added included books from military fiction, rural life, Christian fiction, urban life, Hispanic, Jewish and more to their e-book collection.
"In this community, there were certain groups that were underrepresented, by looking at what we had available in e-books and e-audios," she said.
Paulk says ALA doesn't provide direct support or advise purchases for libraries. She says Georgia libraries are governed by local boards of trustees made up of community members appointed by local government officials and collection decisions are made locally.
These decisions include requests for reconsideration.
"Whatever we have is a conscious decision, It is a deliberate decision. It is a local decision," she said.
Paulk says parents are encouraged to oversee and read what their children are reading. She says it should be a family-by-family decision.
Under this bill, librarians would not be required to be ALA certified.
"A librarian is considered a librarian in the United States when he or she has a degree in librarian and information studies," she said.
Paulk says as the bill is currently written, this limits future opportunities and hurts the only library school in the state, Valdosta State University.
Progress Georgia says this bill would decide which groups were "politically desirable."
The bill is still pending in the Senate.
Here is Walker's full statement:
"The American Library Association is a private organization that built its reputation by providing accreditation for librarians across the country. Following the lead of its self-avowed Marxist president, this once-revered group is now pushing a radical political agenda that does not reflect the values of many local librarians throughout our state. SB 390 is designed to prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding political extremism while empowering our local librarians and communities to determine, without undue pressure from out-of-touch elitists, the material available in their library. It is our responsibility to keep public libraries a welcoming place for literacy and learning, not political indoctrination centers for a radical agenda promoting aberrant sexual behavior and socialist anti-American rhetoric in an overt attempt to influence impressionable young children.
Prior to taking on this issue, I put libraries in the same category as moms and apple pie. I was shocked to find that the havens for learning that I envisioned, places where children’s imaginations could run free, where our young people could find inspiration for their future careers, are being co-opted by a top-down bureaucracy that embraces Marxist ideology and pushes sexually explicit material. Most librarians that I have heard from are as shocked and dismayed by the actions of ALA as I am. They share my view of what libraries should aspire to be for the communities they serve and would welcome an alternative to blindly following the ALA down the path of political activism and societal decay."
If there is material you would like to see added to the library or taken away you can tell a librarian or fill out a reconsideration form on their website.