A new exhibits policy proposed nearly five months ago by the advisory board of the Z. J. Loussac Public Library in Anchorage, Alaska, has stalled in the city’s legal department. Planned artistic and educational displays have not been allowed up and the library won’t schedule new exhibits until a policy is set, the Anchorage Daily News reported December 31.
The draft policy, which prevents the city from excluding displays considered “promotional” and allows exhibits prepared by groups outside the library, came as a result of a lawsuit brought against the city by the Alaska Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a gay-pride exhibit that Mayor George Wuerch had ordered taken down June 5. The exhibit was later reinstalled, but Wuerch called a halt to any exhibits not prepared by library staff, pending a review of the policy.
Bruce Phelps, a board member who helped draft that policy, said, “You are not going to gain anything by gnawing on this thing for two years.”
Head librarian Tim Lynch said he is working with the legal department on the policy but could not discuss its details until the legal review was finished.
Posted January 7, 2002.