Idaho Trustees Resist Pressure
for Restricted-Access Section
The board of the Nampa (Idaho) Public Library announced December 14 that it would not establish a restricted-access section for library materials that some might find inappropriate for minors. Their decision came after months of protest by Nampa Citizens for Parental Rights leader Allen Marsh, who had asked in October that the city council order the library to drop its membership in the American Library Association and join the socially conservative Family Friendly Libraries group instead.
Marsh, who did not attend the meeting, had charged that sexually explicit materials were available to minors at the library. In response, the board issued a two-page letter to the city council, which they had requested in October. “There is no doubt that the public library contains books that will upset and offend every one of us,” the Associated Press excerpted from the letter December 16. “But the job of a public library is to make many different kinds of information and resources available.”
Nampa Public Library will maintain its policy of requiring parental permission for users under 18 to obtain a library card and allowing parents to access their children’s borrowing records.
Posted December 24, 2001.
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