By JACOB HOLMES
Many of the books have subject headings making it clear why they were included: “gay parents,” “lesbian mothers,” “gender identity.”
Alyx Kim-Yohn was busy attending to their normal duties as circulation manager at the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library system last Monday when their branch manager pulled them and others into a meeting to discuss moving children’s books to the adult section.
In that meeting, the branch manager shared with them a spreadsheet of book titles in the library’s catalog, and informed them that the children’s books listed were to be moved into the adult nonfiction section immediately by order of HMCPL executive director Cindy Hewitt.
According to Kim-Yohn, the branch manager told them that Hewitt coordinated with the systems librarian to cross-reference titles in the library’s catalog against a list by the Alabama Public Library Service of challenged titles.
When Kim-Yohn went to check the APLS list for themself, it wasn’t there—because that list does not yet exist. The APLS board did vote unanimously to create a system for Alabama parents to flag titles, which will be collated into a list that will then be distributed to libraries as a resource. But APLS will not be vetting the challenges, and libraries will not be required to do anything with the information. To APR’s knowledge, the APLS website does not yet even have the a page for parent to submit complaints.
