In response, library Director Donna Morris said the staff would do its best to “follow the directives of the commission,” according to the August 26 Oklahoma City Oklahoman.
State Rep. Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City), who spearheaded in the Oklahoma house last spring a nonbinding resolution favoring such restrictions, issued a statement August 29 thanking the “metro area mayors who appoint the commissioners for their support in this effort” and castigating the seven dissenting commissioners as “not understand[ing] the communities they live in or respecting the values of the majority of the people they represent.” Announcing that she is forming a nonprofit group for library accountability, Kern went on to say, “There needs to be followup on this situation. We’re not looking to ban any books. We just think the books should be easily identifiable to parents who may not want a child to read those materials.”
Library commission members did not address which titles are to be reshelved, leaving that determination to a yet-to-be-formed subcommittee charged with following guidelines based on “good judgment and community standards.” However, the prince-meets-prince picture-book King and King was at the heart of the original complaint from a constituent that drew Kern’s attention. The same title motivated the introduction last spring of acquisitions-oversight legislation in Louisiana and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Posted September 2, 2005; revised February 21, 2006.