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County Official Defends New Restrictive Policy in Florida LibraryCommissioner Randy Harris countered criticism of a new policy in place at the Marion County (Fla.) Public Library System that requires books inappropriate for children 17 and under to be shelved in a restricted area. “The county commission is not banning the books,” Harris said in the July 5 Ocala Star-Banner. “The reality is a lot of people drop their children off at the library to baby-sit them. It would be improper for us, as the representative of the public, to make this type of material available to this age without parental consent.”The commission has final authority over which books are restricted. The library marks the books' places on the open shelves with empty jackets or labeled cases, and adults must request the books from staff members. The policy immediately came under fire in a June 23 Star-Banner editorial, which called it a “brilliant move [that] established something the library never had before—an erotica section.” Pat R. Scales, a recent member of the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee, told the paper, “We are living in the freest country in the world. We select books based on a selection process, then turn around and say you can't have access to them. What kind of message does that send?” The county commission approved the policy 4–1 June 21, along with an instruction that the library create a new card to prevent children from checking out sex-education books without parental permission. In April, the commission had dissolved the library's 10-member board that previously made advisory decisions on the collection. The advisory board had counseled Library Director Julie Sieg in February 2004 to rescind her earlier decision to remove the racy novel Eat Me. Commission Chair Andy Kesselring cast the lone dissenting vote, saying he thought the policy would present legal challenges regarding adults' right to information. Sieg told the Star-Banner that she had not heard any complaints from parents about their children running across inappropriate materials, but Harris said past discussions on controversial books drew many parents concerned over free access to adult content. Posted July 8, 2005. |
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