From the Arkansas Advocate:
The Arkansas State Library Board on Friday proposed requiring libraries to restrict children’s access to ‘sexually explicit’ materials in order to receive state funding.
The board unanimously accepted a revised draft of the proposed rules after discussing them with library directors and Department of Education officials for more than two hours at its quarterly meeting Friday. Arkansans will have 30 days to provide feedback on the proposal.
If approved by the board and a legislative panel, the rules would require libraries to ensure that children under 16 cannot check out “sexually explicit materials,” which depict or describe sexual contact and behavior as defined by federal law. It would also restrict access to materials that contain images or descriptions of human genitalia.
Such materials would have to be placed in sections of the library designated for patrons 18 years and older.
Board members suggested that libraries update their software, if possible, to prevent library cardholders under 16 from checking out certain books without parental permission.
The rules include an exception for children 11 and older to access “age-appropriate information designed to prepare minors for the sociology of puberty” with parental consent.
The restrictions are similar to ones that were included in Senate-backed legislation to abolish the Arkansas State Library that died in a House committee last year.
They also follow a federal judge’s 2024 ruling striking down parts of an Arkansas law that would have imposed criminal penalties on librarians for providing materials deemed “harmful” to minors. The case is under appeal.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas was still analyzing the board’s proposal late Friday afternoon but repeated its opposition to state restrictions on library content.
“At a time when Arkansas faces serious challenges that demand governmental attention, continued political intrusion into library collections represents a troubling erosion of the free speech and intellectual freedom rights protected by the Constitution,” spokesperson Megan Bailey said in a statement.
Library directors on Friday said some libraries are too small to relocate certain materials so children can’t reach them. They also said policing cardholders’ access to digital materials would be difficult.
Central Arkansas Library System Executive Director Nate Coulter also questioned whether libraries agreeing to the condition would receive additional money for the expenses it would require.
“That is a huge hand of the government involved in the parenting relationship and in censoring the library,” he said in an interview Friday.
The rules would also require libraries to “not knowingly promote or advertise sexually explicit materials.”
Board member Emmaline Pilkington of Knoxville said this was a higher priority for her than what libraries stock on shelves.
“I don’t want to have to explain Pride Month to my five-year-old,” she said.
Promoting Pride Month is not sexually explicit, said Clare Graham, director of the five-county Mid-Ark Regional Library System. She and other library directors said they already keep sexually explicit fiction, such as romance novels, in sections aimed at adults.
Board vice chair Sydney McKenzie of Rogers asked if the rainbow symbol associated with LGBTQ+ issues might be appealing to children. Graham said this is “based on community standards.”
Coulter said tying state funding to the content of libraries’ book displays is viewpoint discrimination, which was one basis for the court ruling that blocked the law to change how libraries handle content challenges.
“I understand their viewpoint is hostility to queer people and any writers or any content that deals with those topics, but we have judicial indications that that’s not something that the state should do,” said Coulter, one of 18 plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit.
Pilkington mentioned that LGBTQ+ book displays in Arkansas libraries have led to controversy. Those displays include one at Craighead County’s libraries that prompted a measure backed by conservatives in 2022 that cut the libraries’ funding in half.
It was the first of several local disputes over library content and funding throughout Arkansas in the past few years.
The entire State Library Board’s lineup changed last year after the Legislature passed a measure dismissing the panel. Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed the board’s current six members.
They include McKenzie and Pilkington, who are both married to Republican state representatives, and former GOP state Rep. Jack Fortner.
Libraries saw a brief delay in their regular quarterly funding earlier this year after board members asked for clarity on how to ensure libraries are spending state money responsibly. The rules made public Friday spawned from members’ past confusion.
Board members and library directors agreed Friday that parents are ultimately responsible for supervising their children’s use of the library.
“It’s our goal to restrict those books to the people they are written for, not for children,” Fortner said.
Board chairman Clay Goff of Beebe said he expects a special State Library Board meeting sometime after June 7, the end of the public comment period for the draft rules. After the board approves the rules, the Arkansas Legislative Council and its rules subcommittee will have to review the rules before they go into effect.
Goff said he hopes the new standards are in place by Sept. 30. He also said the rules should not have any loopholes while still taking into account that Arkansas is “as diverse as any state in the nation.”
