Library board discusses parental control

By John Labriola - Parents soon could have more control over their children's reading choices under a proposal to be discussed at the next meeting of the Citrus County Library Advisory Board (LAB) in April. 

The issue came up during last week's meeting of the LAB, which meets every other month. Board member Edith Ramlow, a College of Central Florida librarian, said parents should be given a choice of allowing restrictions to be placed on their children's library cards to prevent them from checking out certain books. 

"I'm not advocating for changing everybody's record. I'm just saying have parents be able to choose to have that option or make that option available," Ramlow said. "Basically, it would just be something that the family can decide upon, but what's lacking here is communication between that family and library staff."

The discussion came after a majority of the library board voted at their December meeting to allow more than 20 challenged books to remain in the Young Adult section because of Library Director Adam Chang's decision to redesignate that section to ages 15 to 18, up from ages 12 to 18. Although no signage has changed to reflect the move, Chang said books for 12- to 14-year-olds are in the process of being moved out of the Young Adult section and into the Juvenile section in the children’s room. 

Board member Lenora Nelson asked for another discussion at the April meeting to establish guidelines to determine what materials are inappropriate for the Young Adult section. 

The meeting also saw the induction of the board’s two newest members: Katie Myers, the director of communications at HCA Florida Citrus Hospital, and Rhys Campbell, a network engineer at Verizon Wireless.

Campbell, a father of three young children, questioned whether any explicit materials should be shelved in the Young Adult section. 

“I just want to make sure that we understand that a minor is a minor,” he said. “Anybody under the age of 18 should not be exposed to anything that’s going to be explicit.”

The board also discussed the fundraiser “Booked,” which was held on Feb. 22 at the Lakes Region library and raised $21,000 for the library system. 

Also last week, the blowback continued over county leaders’ decision last month to oust conservative former LAB member Elaine Kleid, who was presented a certificate of appreciation at the library board meeting. Two residents addressed the county commission to urge them to reappoint Kleid the next time nominations take place, which happens at least once a year.