The former director of the Autauga-Prattville Public Library said politics was to blame for his ouster late last week amid a battle over book bans.

“Absolutely,” Andrew Foster said during an appearance Monday on “The Source with Kaitlan Collins” on CNN when Collins asked him if he believed the roles of library directors were being politicized.

“And that’s unfortunately happening at libraries all over the state and all over the nation,” Foster said.

The former Autauga-Prattville Library director was fired by the library’s board on Friday, ostensibly because Foster complied with an open records request from the Alabama Political Reporter regarding the board’s book bans.

Under the bans, more than 100 children’s and young adult books could be moved to the adult section. The board also reprimanded Foster for recording meetings, which is allowed by state law if at least one person consents.

The request showed Foster asking the board for clarity on the definition of terms like “obscenity” and “gender identity,” saying the terms under the new board’s policies were “vague.”

“If you take the full scope of what they mean at face value, [it] could be nearly any book in the library, for some of them,” Foster told Collins.

The former director also said several board members would instruct him in their individual capacities but received no direction from the board itself.

“I’ve, for the last month and a half, been asking for clarity. In my asking for clarity, an important point is that I, as the library director, am answerable to the entire board of the library board, not to individuals,” Foster said.

“In my pushing for answers, several times I asked, ‘I need this to be a clarification by the board, I need this to be clarified to me by the entirety of the board … in an open meeting’ because that is, legally, to my full understanding, how that process has to work,” he told Collins.

But Foster said the board’s attorney disputed that open meetings needed to be held.

Besides the director, four members of the library’s staff were also fired for locking the doors to the facility shortly after Foster’s termination.

Alabama Library Association president Matthew Layne said the firing “is a travesty that should frighten every Alabama resident.”

“Social extremists are utilizing ruthless, strong-arm tactics to transform them into political battlegrounds,” Layne said. He said libraries are “essential public resources where all members of our community could gather and learn,” and that the firings were “unjust, politically motivated” and “undermines this library’s capacity for properly, effectively serving the public.”

“Further, it’s a frightening example of what could happen at public libraries across our state,” Layne said. “As a lifelong Alabama resident, I know this is unequivocally not what our state’s residents want.”

Read Freely Alabama, an organization founded in Prattville that has pushed back against book challenges, released a statement supporting Foster and the fired staff.

“The freedom to read is essential, like air and water, to a healthy democracy. We will continue to fight alongside our neighbors in Prattville and the library supporters for the right to read.”