Dozens of people gathered Tuesday at the Autauga-Prattville Public Library to demand the local library maintain its independence amid an attack on the organization’s collection of books.

The approximately 100 people in attendance later stopped at meetings of the Autauga County Commission and the Prattville City Council, urging officials to vote down a service contract that could have stripped the library of its autonomy and potentially its funding.

Prattville City Council members voted against the contract in a 4-3 vote Monday evening.

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“I was just incredibly relieved to find out that the library wouldn’t be backed into a corner and forced to make the difficult decision to either compromise everything that the library is supposed to be for the community, or turn down the contract and ultimately end up with the doors closed,” said Angie Hayden of Read Freely Prattville, the group that helped organized the event.

Members also spoke at the county commission meeting to ensure that commissioners are aware of where they stood on the issue. Funding for the library is tied to the city and county budgets, which commissioners will vote on in October. There was no vote taken at Monday’s commission meeting.

“The Autauga County Commission appreciates and supports our local library for being a hub of information and providing free access to educational, news, historic resources, programs and more, for all our citizens.” said Autauga County Administrator Scott Kramer.

Had the service contract been approved, it would have increased the age designation of the young adult section to people 18 years old or older, essentially discouraging teenagers from having access to the materials in that section.

It would have also codified terms that were defined as sexually explicit material, prohibiting anyone younger than 18 years old from checking out the materials. Classic books from “The Kite Runner” to “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” could have fallen under that definition and prevented children in high school from accessing the materials, according to Hayden.

Council members would also have had the right to pull library funding at any time, for whatever reason, which had never been considered before. In the past, the funding had simply gone through, according to Hayden.

The incident is one of several this year involving Alabama libraries. A call to remove LGBTQ-themed books from a library in Ozark led to a tense meeting last week that drew over 100 people.

The service contract was the most recent episode in a series of events that started back in the spring of 2023 over the appropriateness of some materials in the library. Hannah Rees of Clean Up Prattville, the organization campaigning for the contract, specifically cited books that speak to LGBTQ issues, particularly with transgender individuals.

“When we are talking about sexual content for kids is where I draw the line, that is all that we are saying,” she said. “The books we originally found were just very radical, gender ideologies, where it was talking to kids, very, very small kids, about transitioning into the opposite sex.”

Andrew Foster, the library’s current director, said the campaign began with one book.

“There was an incident where a family checked out a book called the ‘Pronoun Book’, took it home before realizing it was an inclusive pronoun book, that it wasn’t just binary, he and she, but instead had some other representations in the book,” he said.

While that was the first book challenged, there have been more, and the library responded by implementing a process laid out within its policies for reviewing the books to determine how they should be classified. People complete a form allowing them to explain their problems with the material before a committee composed of employees and board members who will read the book to determine if the book needs to be moved or recategorized.

Books typically are not removed from circulation altogether simply because someone objects to the content.

“We have a process for weeding out books from our collection, but that is only going to be from disuse, it is not circulating from the shelves, or it is damaged, or things like that, rather than content,” Foster said.

Unhappy with the responses they were receiving from the library board, members of Clean Up Prattville began soliciting support from their local elected officials back in May.

The service contract was the result of several discussions and attempts to resolve the matter. It was not however, what members of Clean Up Prattville wanted, believing the measure did not go far enough in addressing their concerns.

Despite that, Rees and her supporters are undeterred, who are looking to expand the fight statewide. In one respect, they have already gotten the attention of state officials.

Gov. Kay Ivey wrote a letter dated Friday to Nancy Pack, director of the Alabama Public Library Service, asking for an accounting of money given to the American Library Association, a target of Clean Up Prattville.

“I hate that the governor has fallen for what I believe is a very targeted, specific tactic by these groups to alienate LGBTQ people,” Hayden said.

Hayden has a history with the library dating back to when her children were growing up.

“I love this library, one of my daughters is here, both of my girls are grown now, and I have pictures of them with books stacked up to their little noses,” Hayden said. “I feel like they are trying to compromise with a group that doesn’t actually have any interest in compromise. They want control – and they have stated very openly that they will not stop at this. They have a whole list of demands that they will make for the library.”

For others, it is a matter of choice.

“I think apart from my personal opinions, and how I choose to raise my family and the things that I choose to let into my home, that nobody has the right to tell you what you can read and what you can let into your home,” said Jess Woods, president of Friends of the Library.