“I hope to goodness that we never try to get rid of a book again … I can tell you this; if we have a library director and staff that picks appropriate material in the first place, this will no longer be an issue.” – Doug Adams, Vice Chair ImagineIF Board of Trustees.
That statement should chill to the bone every resident of the county. The ImagineIF library policy on collection management, which has stood well through the years and terms of many prior Boards of Trustees, states at the beginning: “Library staff have the duty to protect the public’s First Amendment rights from being infringed upon by government influence.”
As appointees of the county commissioners, the Library Board of Trustees are the agents of county government, tasked with hiring and oversight of the library director and budget. There is a firewall between the Trustees and the library staff who are trained to curate the library’s collections. This firewall exists for good reason: to prevent the type of actions we now see the three rogues on the Board of Trustees attempting.
Rather than working constructively to recruit and hire a qualified director, trustee Ingram worked behind the scenes to ban books even before a public complaint was ever received, colluding with Adams who expressed a desire to “… stoke the fire” and “tick off” the interim director. Rather than working with library and foundation staff, as has been the norm for decades in our community, trustee Roedel explored options to shut down the library and lay off the staff. Rather than working with library staff or committee, Ingram re-wrote the collections policy by himself before any complaint was made. Rather than protecting the public’s access to library materials that might be challenging, provocative, or controversial (among the highest duties off a trustee), they attempted to ban entire categories of books (graphic novels) when they suspected more targeted censorship might meet resistance.
As the full breadth and depth of these trustees’ malfeasance comes to light, let us call on our county commissioners to replace them with individuals better suited to guard the jewel of literacy and knowledge that is our library system.
Jared Sibbitt
Bigfork