Librarians and other organizations this week expressed disdain or support for Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) director Nancy Pack’s recommendation to leave the American Library Association (ALA).

Pack sent a memo with this decision to the APLS board, Gov. Kay Ivey and all library directors on Oct. 12, along with recommendations to move potentially inappropriate books for children to a separate section in the library, to maintain state funding. But the letter wasn’t publicly known until last week.

The APLS board will make the final decision at the Nov. 16 board meeting.

Library advocacy organization Read Freely Alabama (RFA) said in a statement they understood that Ivey threatened to pull library funding but were still “deeply disappointed” and believe separating content is censorship.

“It is essential to note that books in our libraries are already separated into appropriate age categories, even if some parents disagree with the points of view expressed in some books,” RFA said in the statement. “There are no books with sexually explicit content in the children’s sections of Alabama libraries.”

RFA noted that the ALA isn’t a governing body but a professional association.

“The library transcends the association, and we are confident that library professionals will adhere to the tenets of constitutional librarianship, with or without the ALA.”

North Shelby library director Kate Etheredge said in an email she’s disheartened by this decision and that ALA’s Library Bill of Rights is “a plain-text explanation of the First Amendment when viewed through a library lens.”

“We can change our policy wording to remove ALA, but the guiding principles of the First Amendment would remain the same,” Etheredge, a member of the ALA, said. “Public libraries exist to provide information and access to all. We do not censor. We do not promote. We make a variety of information and services available and ask our patrons to respect that differences exist among us.”

Etheredge said moving books will “create a barrier to access” for library patrons and create a “slippery slope where each successive patron who feels a book is controversial would also need to be accommodated, and their beliefs may not be the same as the initial group.”

Alyx Kim-Yohn, a circulation manager at the Madison branch of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, is “tired of dancing around the issue of content, namely the conflation of LGBTQ+ and anti-racist content with ‘sexually explicit’ and ‘inappropriate’ content,” they said in an email.

“The hypocrisy is unmistakable,” Kim-Yohn, a member of ALA, said about groups like Clean Up Alabama (CUA) and Moms For Liberty that challenge books. “The issue is not parents’ rights, for parents have always had the right – and responsibility! – to engage in conversation with their children and monitor the materials they check out from public libraries; the issue is censorship by way of shaping public libraries into what they and they alone believe is appropriate for all families across the state.”

Cullman County interim library director Josephine Harrington said she was shocked when she received the letter and felt at first it was a hasty decision. She later discovered that “effectively funds are being held hostage if the APLS did not leave the ALA, which is very unfortunate.”

“So many programs for really underserved populations get a lot of their funding from the state aid funds,” Harrington, an ALA member, said. “So while I hate that that’s a choice that had to be made, I do understand the intent behind it. And it does not mean individual libraries have to leave the ALA and it does not mean individuals have to disaffiliate.”

Conservative interest group Eagle Forum, in a statement, commended the people who “stood against obscene graphic illustrations and agenda driven literature in children’s sections of our libraries.” The group said withdrawing from the ALA was “a step in the right direction” and hopes libraries follow Pack’s recommendations.

“We are hopeful that future library selections will include classic children’s literature which has uplifted and instructed generations of Americans while upholding such timeless values as truth, honesty, beauty, loyalty, love, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control,” said president Eunie Smith. She added children should be “engaged, enthralled, inspired and instructed” with content that’s age appropriate and follows the Golden Rule.

In a Facebook post, Clean Up Alabama said, “The fight is not over, but this shows the power of your voice.”

“The APLS recommendations trust the same officials who put porn in our libraries to continue to determine the appropriateness of the content. It’s time for the Legislature to address this and prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars from being used to provide children with sexual content.”

Conservative interest group Eagle Forum, in a statement, commended the people who “stood against obscene graphic illustrations and agenda driven literature in children’s sections of our libraries.” The group said withdrawing from the ALA was “a step in the right direction” and hopes libraries follow Pack’s recommendations.

”We are hopeful that future library selections will include classic children’s literature which has uplifted and instructed generations of Americans while upholding such timeless values as truth, honesty, beauty, loyalty, love, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control,” said president Eunie Smith. She added children should be “engaged, enthralled, inspired and instructed” with content that’s age appropriate and follows the Golden Rule.