“Wow!” exclaimed Tom Jankovsky, Garfield County Commission (BOCC) chair pro-tem, after five hours of interviews for three public library district trustee positions. “Look at the people we have here in Garfield County and the talent and the knowledge. It just was amazing!”
Indeed, it seemed like some of the best and brightest of New Castle, Glenwood Springs and Carbondale gave up their Tuesday last week to talk about the Library Bill of Rights, restricting material for children, why they’d be the best person for the job and more. Ten people applied for the New Castle trustee seat, which will be vacant on Dec. 31. Eight applied for the Glenwood Springs seat and seven for the Carbondale seat, including two current trustees who are eligible for another term.
Three of the 25 were men. Tony May, former RE-2 school board member who was recalled this year, and bibliophile Brit McLin stepped up for the New Castle position. Attorney Tony Hershey, a former Glenwood Springs city councilman, threw his hat in the ring for the Glenwood Springs position.
Compared to previous public meetings involving the BOCC and library trustees, participants were polite. There was no name-calling, no talk of communism and no one exited the room to scream in the foyer. Trustees Myrna Fletchall, Michelle Foster and John Mallonee joined Jankovsky and Commissioner Mike Samson. Each posed one question.
Mallonee asked if candidates would be willing to uphold the Library Bill of Rights and/or SB 24-216 (Standards for Decisions Regarding Library Resources), which passed this year. Brit McLin responded with a story about a conversation he had with his 12-year-old grandson about manga graphic novels. He told the boy that there is a move to have them banned from the library based on bloodshed, violence and mature content, and asked him what he thought about that. “Well,” responded the boy, “You know, the Bible’s got kind of a lot of violence, bloodshed and mature content.” McLin told the board, “You gotta be a little careful when you get into censorship.”
Everyone was supportive of libraries in general. A couple of candidates want coffee areas set up inside the libraries. When asked why they should be appointed to the board, several said they, in fact, might not be the best candidate. Some said they supported Carbondale resident Jocelyn Durrance, who is up for a term renewal. Candidates for term renewals are now required by the BOCC to go through the application process with everyone else.
Jankovsky chose what was potentially a hot-button question: “Garfield County library district bylaws require libraries to protect children from material on the internet that is harmful to their beneficial development … Do you believe there should be the same reasonable policy for children’s access to books that are designated for mature audiences only?” Sometimes he said “the same policy” or “reasonable policy,” which clouded the question.
Niki Delson, applying for the Carbondale opening, said, “The library is not where the danger lies for our children.” Kathy Small, also from Carbondale, said the role of the library is to “promote literacy” by providing free content, and that the board of trustees should emphasize the collection and how it will evolve over time. “More speech is free speech,” she said.
Jocelyn Durrance said the library is obligated to give space to those who want to view mature content but the public computers are filtered. “The library is a great equalizer,” she added.
Masandra Gray, up for the New Castle position, sees the library issue as divided. She said that there must be some “give.” “Our libraries are not breaking any laws,” she added. Dawn Dexter, also from New Castle, compared the library to a gym. “At the library, we strengthen our minds like we go to the gym to strengthen our bodies,” she said. She added that she has never encountered anything in the children’s section of the county libraries that shouldn’t be there but that policies should protect children. “I think we should be very, very cautious in terms of censorship,” she said. “But yeah, adults are there to protect children.”
You can watch the entire meeting at the Garfield County website. Commissioners are expected to fill all three positions at their regular meeting on Monday, Dec. 16.