Athens and Fairhope are two fast-growing cities in the fastest-growing areas of Alabama, but there is no mistaking their conservative bona fides.

In both the 2020 and 2024 elections, more than 70% of voters in Limestone and Baldwin counties backed Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

But the two counties, according to early statistics about library card applications, appear to be bucking a trend embraced by conservative-leaning groups and the Alabama GOP: Their patrons appear to be trusting the libraries.

More than 60% of parents at the Fairhope Public Library in coastal Alabama and the Athens-Limestone County Public Library in North Alabama, have signed off on all-access passes for their children with no restrictions on library usage.

“I think that reflects on our community in the trust parents have in their kids and the library as well,” said Anne Johnson, chair of the Fairhope Library Board, during a Read Freely Alabama town hall meeting on Tuesday.

Notably, the statistics are early in the aftermath of the Alabama Public Library Services’ (APLS) new administrative rules approved in May and rolled out in July. Johnson based her statistic off an initial rollout of Fairhope’s new library card system that went into effect about three weeks ago.

The state’s individual library systems had until Oct. 1, to implement the new policy requirements that proponents said would protect children from adult content within the public venues.

Among the polices that libraries need to adopt to receive state aid are new library card guidelines for minors under age 18. The guidelines require parental approval before a minor’s card is permitted to checkout materials within the library’s adult sections, the policy states.

“Libraries are still working on the new code changes and there are no statewide statistics at this time,” said John Wahl, chair of the APLS executive board and chair of the Alabama Republican Party. “The goal of the code changes was to ensure that children do not accidentally stumble across sexually explicit material, and to put parents back in the driver’s seat of what their children have access to.”

He added, “We rate video games, movies and TV shows. Library access should be no different. I believe strongly in freedom of speech and returning control from government to families and that is what these changes do.”

Developing trust

The early indicators, though, suggest most parents do not equate the libraries to venues with segregated adult sections, such as an adult bookstore.

The implementation of the new rules come at a time that libraries have become Ground Zero for the latest culture wars nationwide primarily over objections about the display and location of LGBTQ+ titles.

April Wise, director of the Athens-Limestone County Public Library, said her staff takes “great care” to ensure materials are shelved in the appropriate collections, with items undergoing several levels of scrutiny before they are made available for checkout.

The Athens-Limestone County Public Library, much like Fairhope, offers restricted and unlimited access to the library’s materials, depending on parental approval. At Athens-Limestone County, the tiers include “Juvenile Only,” which restricts checkout to the library’s juvenile collections. A “Young Adult” card restricts checkouts to the library’s Young Adult and Juvenile collections, Wise said.

The unrestricted options for all age groups does carry a limited restriction for youths under age 18 in that they can access everything the library except for R-rated DVDs, and adult graphic novels.

“We felt this created a system that let parents choose and personalize options for each of their children,” Wise said. “For instance, the parent might choose for their 16-year-old to check out from the Young Adult and Juvenile collections, but their 8-year-old could be restricted to the juvenile collections. Another family can choose no restrictions for their children at all, regardless of age. Every family is different, and we wanted to create a system that would respect those differences.”

The library also raised the recommended age for the Young Adult collections to 16.

“The books do tend to deal with more mature topics and those topics might not be suitable for younger teens,” Wise said.

To date, only 34% of the parents, or 276, have opted for restricted access, Wise said. Another 66%, or 532 parents, have opted for no restrictions. The library began the tiered system in June.

Wise said she has personally assisted parents update the new checkout options for children, and among those who chose the unrestricted option, she’s heard the following:

• They are bringing their children/teenagers to the library and they will determine what materials are appropriate.
• They trust their child or teenager to pick out appropriate materials.

“I do think this is a reflection of the community’s trust in our purchasing and placement policies for materials for minors, and in our ability to recommend books to their children that support each family’s values and interests,” Wise said. “But it also highlights the level of parental involvement our patrons have in their children’s reading choices. Our patrons tend to come to the library as a family unit and it’s wonderful to see these families fostering a love for reading.”

She added, “We want to create a partnership with parents and foster a level of trust. We want to learn about your family and your reading preference and help ensure that your library experience is wonderful. And I believe this level of care can be found in every library across Alabama.”

In Fairhope, the library has a three-tiered library card system. Johnson said the restricted access cards for teens (ages 13-17) and juveniles (ages 3-12) are split at 20% each, while the all-access cards signed off by parents is at 60%.

“The percentages … are very reasonable for all public libraries across the state of Alabama,” said Craig Scott, director of the Gadsden Public Library and the president of the Alabama Library Association.

The new system went into effect on Oct. 22, so the statistics are early and could change in the coming months.

But Johnson said she sees it as an early vote of confidence.

“I do consider it solid support for the freedom to read and trust in the library,” she said. “We’ll see if that continues.”

Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan said she wasn’t aware of the library’s statistics but concurred with Johnson’s assessment: Most people trust the library.

“We adopted the state policies and had them approved by the state,” Sullivan said. “It’s important for us from a funding perspective to maintain the public trust. We are putting things into place to allow parents to do their job and to select what permissions their kids will have.”

An early vote of confidence is also occurring in Foley, where a new library card policy went into effect on Oct. 1. The policy requires parents of minors under 18 to fill out a “Minor Library Card Permission Form” and select which level of access they want for their child — Children’s Card (ages birth to 10), Tween Card (10-13), Teen (13-18), and unrestricted adult cards.

“Since implementing our policy updates on October 1, (our circulation staff) has found that the majority of parents are either selection ‘unrestricted’ or selecting one level above their child’s suggested age range,” said Foley Public Library Director Kate Norris.

Too early to tell

The APLS’s policies do not require a tiered approach for individual library systems to issue library cards. The requirement reads that for a library system in Alabama to receive state aid, it must approve written guidelines establishing separate library cards for minors under 18, and a requirement for parental approval before a minor’s card is permitted to check out materials from a library’s adult section.

The APLS code changes do not only apply to library cards. Libraries are also required, in order to receive state funding, have written guidelines ensuring sections are freed of material that could contain obscenity, sexually explicit or other materials deemed inappropriate for children. They are also required to have a written selection criteria for minors that prevents the purchase or acquisition of materials advertised for youths under 18 which contain obscenity, sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate.

Organizations like Read Freely Alabama have long challenged the policies, saying they are vague and constitutionally questionable. The group filed a federal lawsuit challenging restrictive policies adopted in 2023 by the Autauga-Prattville Library, which they claimed violate the First Amendment.

The policies carry hefty ramifications. Without approval from the APLS, libraries could have their state aid pulled, which would create massive budgetary problems. APLS distributes state aid funding to libraries each quarter on a per capita basis.

Read more: Inside the blistering battle over Alabama libraries: ‘Burn the freaking books’

A host of libraries in Alabama do not have their policies rolled out yet, which would include new library card systems. The Huntsville-Madison County Library will roll out its new tiered library card system next March. The Montgomery City-County Public Library is still in the process of updating its policies.

Others say they are taking different approaches than Fairhope and Athens-Limestone.

In Daphne, library patrons are offered two cards – adult and juvenile. Before the APLS rules, teens ages 16 and up could apply for a library card without their parent’s approval and receive unlimited access once they had reached age 16. But after the rule changes, the age requirement increased to 18.

“The major change is the language on the application that is explicitly stating that the parent is responsible for selecting appropriate materials for their child,” said Daphne Library Director Emmie Powell.

The Daphne Public Library issued 17 juvenile cards in October, which is the same number it issued in October 2023.

Sherry Sakovich, library director at the Decatur Public Library, said their system is requiring something similar to Daphne in which parents fill out applications for juvenile-only access or for unrestricted access for juveniles, which require a signed parental agreement. The new system was rolled out in early October, and – thus far – Sakovich said there has been 65 parental agreements signed allowing youths full-access.

Sakovich said Decatur’s program is different from Fairhope and elsewhere. She noted there is no one-size-fits-all approach on how library cards are issued from public libraries throughout Alabama.

“Every single one of these libraries is different because every community is different, and you have libraries that are maybe the size of a small room where you are literally 3 feet away from an adult section,” Sakovich said.