Library display plan advances

By John Labriola - The Citrus County Commission last week advanced a plan by Commissioner Jeff Kinnard to give library staff and the volunteer Library Advisory Board (LAB) guidelines for deciding what book displays to allow in Citrus County libraries.

Commissioners unanimously voted to give staff direction to merge Kinnard's draft policy with the library system's existing display policy and bring it back to the board, but to first remove a provision allowing outside groups to apply for displays, which Kinnard agreed to.

"I spent a couple of weeks going back over and reimagining where we wanted to go with this library display policy, and what I kept coming back to is I'd like to see this board remain more as a policy board and stay out of these different disputes happening from both ends of the political spectrum in our libraries," Kinnard said. "I think it's appropriate for this board to set a policy to attempt to keep these displays as neutral as possible and as focused on the library's core mission as possible and put it in the hands of the Library Advisory Board to handle those things."

The proposed policy is in response to years of controversy surrounding library displays, beginning with the unpopular LGBT Pride Month propaganda display in June 2021, which was canceled following intense public backlash. The controversy reignited this October, when the LAB voted to reject a motion to create a temporary display of books written or recommended by Charlie Kirk after a mob of hateful leftists slandered Kirk and intimidated the LAB by shouting obscenities. Commissioner Diana Finegan and members of the public later panned the decision, which some attributed to cowardice. They said Kirk, who was assassinated at a Utah university campus on Sept. 10 by an angry leftist, deserves a display. 

Kinnard's draft policy states that displays "must reflect educational and cultural enrichment, not political, religious, or partisan advocacy," that they "must be nonpartisan, non-sectarian, and educational in nature," with a duration of no more than 60 days, and must align with the library's mission of "promoting literacy, lifelong learning and cultural enrichment." Displays could not contain "political party logos, campaign materials, or endorsements," "religious worship materials or proselytizing" or "sexual or sexuality related material." The LAB's decision on whether to approve displays would be final and could not be appealed to the county commission. 

But several residents objected to parts of Kinnard's proposed policy, including Rhys Campbell, the LAB member who originally proposed the Charlie Kirk book display. 

Campbell said he disagreed with the policy's apparent ban on "political" displays, given that the library system already dislpays books by or about political figures during Black History Month and Women's History Month. He also objected to its prohibition of "religious" displays. 

"I have a problem with that because if there's a religious author or Charlie Kirk's new book Stop in the Name of God, somebody could take that and say we don't want to put that in the display," he said.

Other residents disagreed with giving the Library Advisory Board the final say on displays.

"As an unelected body the LAB by nature struggles to adequately reflect the will of the people; on the other hand, the county commission is elected by county residents and has over time proven to be more responsive to its constituents," said Mike O'Connell of Inverness. "Please do not change the LAB's charter. Instead, please appoint LAB members that better reflect Citrus County constituents. For years now, the LAB has been overwhelmingly left-leaning in an overwhelmingly conservative county. By appointing a more representative board, I believe many if not most of the issues you have had to deal with can be avoided going forward."