Report: “In Deep Red Alabama, Libraries Gain Trust of Parents Seeking All-Access Cards For Children”

From AL.com:

Athens and Fairhope are two fast-growing cities in the fastest-growing areas of Alabama, but there is no mistaking their conservative bona fides.

In both the 2020 and 2024 elections, more than 70% of voters in Limestone and Baldwin counties backed Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

But the two counties, according to early statistics about library card applications, appear to be bucking a trend embraced by conservative-leaning groups and the Alabama GOP: Their patrons appear to be trusting the libraries.

More than 60% of parents at the Fairhope Public Library in coastal Alabama and the Athens-Limestone County Public Library in North Alabama, have signed off on all-access passes for their children with no restrictions on library usage.

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The state’s individual library systems had until Oct. 1, to implement the new policy requirements that proponents said would protect children from adult content within the public venues.

Among the polices that libraries need to adopt to receive state aid are new library card guidelines for minors under age 18. The guidelines require parental approval before a minor’s card is permitted to checkout materials within the library’s adult sections, the policy states.

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April Wise, director of the Athens-Limestone County Public Library, said her staff takes “great care” to ensure materials are shelved in the appropriate collections, with items undergoing several levels of scrutiny before they are made available for checkout.

The Athens-Limestone County Public Library, much like Fairhope, offers restricted and unlimited access to the library’s materials, depending on parental approval. At Athens-Limestone County, the tiers include “Juvenile Only,” which restricts checkout to the library’s juvenile collections. A “Young Adult” card restricts checkouts to the library’s Young Adult and Juvenile collections, Wise said.

The unrestricted options for all age groups does carry a limited restriction for youths under age 18 in that they can access everything the library except for R-rated DVDs, and adult graphic novels.

“We felt this created a system that let parents choose and personalize options for each of their children,” Wise said. “For instance, the parent might choose for their 16-year-old to check out from the Young Adult and Juvenile collections, but their 8-year-old could be restricted to the juvenile collections. Another family can choose no restrictions for their children at all, regardless of age. Every family is different, and we wanted to create a system that would respect those differences.”

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