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The Garfield County Public Library District has three positions opening on its board before Jan. 1, and county commissioners are once again preparing to oversee the interview and appointment process.
There are seven positions on the public library board — one for each municipality’s library in the county, plus an additional at-large seat.
Current board member Crystal Mariscal of New Castle recently announced that she will be resigning early from her term. Her last day is Nov. 8. Two more trustees, Jocelyn Durrance of Carbondale and Susan Use of Glenwood Springs, will be up for reappointment at the end of the year and have both indicated their interest in a second term.
The county commissioners have historically had the final say in approving library trustees, but they decided to take a more active role last year after receiving a citizens petition led by Rifle resident Trish O’Grady asking for restrictions to prevent kids from accessing certain adult graphic novels with sexual content and all books with parental advisory warnings at the libraries.
During a county meeting on Oct. 7, O’Grady again brought the petition, which now has about 1,400 signatures, to the commissioners during public comment. O’Grady acknowledged that the commissioners lack the authority to restrict library books, but she urged them to take the same steps they took when they appointed Rifle resident Myrna Fletchall to the library board in May.
“I know you got backlash for doing that, but you were doing your job,” O’Grady told commissioners. “That’s the only oversight you have over the library, the only power you have over the library, is to appoint a board member.”
The county commissioners have been working on an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the library board to formalize how the appointment process should work in the future. The library board requested a provision that would allow board members up for reappointment to renew their term without going through the interview and approval process a second time, but the IGA has not been signed yet and the commissioners are considering undertaking the appointment process by the end of the year.
“There’s enough controversy about this that my perspective is we want to see some diversity of opinion on the library board, where there's discussion back and forth, instead of what I would call, I guess, ‘like-think,’” Garfield County Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said in an interview.
According to Garfield County Libraries Executive Director Jamie LaRue, the books in question are in the adult section of the libraries, and library staff have never had a problem with kids trying to check them out or fielded complaints from parents whose kids have read them in the library.
“Basically, I don't think this is a problem,” LaRue said. “And if parents object to what their children are reading about, why is the library enforcing that? It seems to me it's a discussion that should happen between the parent and the child.”
With the U.S. growing more diverse, LaRue sees the controversy as part of a national movement to censor books that make people feel uncomfortable or challenge social norms, especially books by, or about, the LGBTQ community or people of color.
“Under the age of five America is now majority non-whites, and we’re seeing more and more of the traditionally marginalized populations beginning to break into this publishing world,” LaRue said. “And so what that means is it's a threatened power structure that feels like it's under attack, and so they want to fend off those new voices.”
The majority of books that Garfield County Libraries received formal complaints about last year featured LGBTQ characters or addressed topics such as gender and sexuality, but Jankovsky said that wasn’t the focus of concerns brought to the county commissioners.
“It also wasn't a national group that brought this to our attention, it was local citizens that brought this to our attention,” Jankovsky said. “And the books and the sexual graphics in the books are startling and that’s a concern.”
Local parents make their voices heard
With the possibility of appointments to the Garfield County Libraries board of trustees before Jan. 1, when any newly elected commissioners would take office, local parents are making their voices heard.
Jaime Roark, a Garfield County parent of four, signed the original petition to restrict books with parental advisory warnings.
His kids never spent much time at their local library, but he was shocked when he learned about the explicit sexual content in some of the adult graphic novels on the shelves.
“I honestly had no idea how vulgar that stuff is, and until they showed me a few of them,” Roark said. “Knowing that that stuff's in the library, I will not let my children in the library without me ever.”
Roark is glad the commissioners are taking a more active role in appointing library board members and doesn’t see it as an overreach of local government.
“We have elected politicians who have been charged with the responsibility of caretaking our neighborhoods and our community,” Roark said. “So, what I hear is that they are willing to step up and be a little bit more diligent in executing their responsibilities, and for that, I'm very thankful.”
But some parents see the issue differently, including Carbondale resident Carolyn Howard who helps lead the citizens group Protect Our Garfield County Libraries.
“I think the commissioners should be focused on what they stated as their goals for Garfield County, which have to do with everything from land use to access to mental health care,” Howard said. “I think we have library professionals that are on the board, and the county commissioners agreed to all of the current library board appointments.”
Protect Our Garfield County Libraries held a rally in Glenwood Springs on Oct. 19, when Howard and other residents submitted a counter-petition with about 1,300 signatures asking the commissioners to reject attempts to restrict certain library books.
“Our libraries are far more of a resource than a danger to the community,” Howard said. “If we really want to look at kids gaining access to some crazy stuff, unsupervised, well, the elephant in the room is a cell phone, right?”
For Howard, the local library has always been a safe place for her kids to learn about new ideas, and she worries that appointing board members who support restricting books could change that.
“It kind of sows some chaos in our seemingly sleepy county,” Howard said. “I think that it plays on fears that parents might have, and that's a horrible thing.”
The county commissioners are planning to talk about next steps this week, and the library board hopes to meet with them in mid-November.
