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Florida Officials Mull Budget Cut to Stop Library Buying “Filthy Trash”Marion County, Florida, commissioners weighed April 6 the feasibility of slashing the county library’s $900,000 book budget to keep library staff from adding titles to the collection that some consider objectionable, the Ocala Star-Banner reported April 7. “You don’t have to enter into arguments about censoring filthy trash if you don’t purchase it to begin with,” contended commissioner Randy Harris, referring to a nine-month old controversy over the presence of the sexually explicit novel Eat Me in the Marion County Public Library System collection in Ocala. Challenged last July, the book was pulled a month later by Director Julie Sieg, who reinstated it in February after a former trustee’s questioning of her original action prompted Sieg to rethink her reaction to the book. However, the novel’s return to the library shelves triggered outrage from another quarter. At a March 22 commission meeting, area resident Bill Glass began reading explicit passages from Eat Me into the record and refused to stop despite protests from onlookers and commissioners. As a sheriff’s deputy escorted him out, Glass threatened to make the issue “personal” if his grandson ever encountered the book at the library. The March meeting attracted several dozen library supporters who came in opposition to a proposal to overhaul the library board by having each county commissioner appoint a trustee from his or her district. County Administrator Pat Howard also advised shifting responsibility for setting library policy from trustees to his staff. Final decisions on both matters are still pending. Posted April 9, 2004. |
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