Report: “Library Directors in Arkansas Express Worry Over Limits of Law Regulating Access to Certain Books”, AG Says New Law Does Not Apply to E-Books and Audiobooks

From the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

Arkansas’ attorney general said on Friday that a law creating a new offense for “furnishing a harmful item to a minor” does not apply to e-books and audiobooks despite concerns from the head of the Central Arkansas Library system over whether thousands of items in digital libraries remain vulnerable to scrutiny under the rule.

Act 372, formerly Senate Bill 81, was sponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, and was intended to create a process for challenging books available to children in public and school libraries. It also strikes a defense from a state law intended to protect librarians from criminal prosecution under obscenity laws and makes “furnishing a harmful item to a minor” a Class A misdemeanor. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the legislation on March 30.

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In an emailed statement sent through spokesman Jeff LeMaster, state Attorney General Tim Griffin said on Friday afternoon, “Act 372 does not regulate materials posted online.”

Subsection (c)(2) of the act “exempts material that is posted online,” Griffin said in a second emailed statement. “If someone is going to the library’s website to download an e-book, for example, that is outside the scope of the statute.”

Sullivan echoed Griffin’s answer, saying on Wednesday that his legislation is “only for material books physically present in the library.”

However, other state officials have expressed reticence about giving specific guidelines related to the law.

An email sent from Arkansas State Library Director Jennifer Chilcoat to local library systems on Thursday points to a section of the legislation that states the “furnishing a harmful item to a minor” offense “does not include transmitting or sending of items over the internet.”

A second memo sent about two-and-a-half hours later, though, instructs recipients of the initial message to “disregard and delete my previous email and any technical assistance contained in it.”

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