Fairhope residents voice concerns over library's book review process, ‘explicit' content
FAIRHOPE, Ala. (WKRG) — On Tuesday night, people for and against the Fairhope Public Library's book review process showed up to the Fairhope City Council meeting to voice their concerns.
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14 books are under review by the Fairhope Public Library after the Alabama Public Library Service decided to for the library due to findings of 'explicit content' in the teen section.
'We are not demanding censorship. We are simply demanding that sexually explicit books, material describing sexual acts, rapes, trafficking and graphic language be moved out of the children's and teen sections and placed into the adult sections where they belong,' said one Fairhope resident who is against funding for the library.
Another resident, who is in support of the library, also spoke up at the meeting, saying, 'They are important, literary books. And I ask you not to re-shelve them so the students that need them can't find them.'
Director of the Fairhope Public Library, Robert Gourley, said that the board of trustees has started the review process.
'I think that public libraries should be known for serving our entire community,' said Gourley.
'We look at what we read, the whole work, and try to judge it on the whole work of literature. And then we look at reviews and professional publications, what the recommended target audience is, as well as what the original publisher of the book is saying that the target audience is, and what other libraries may be doing with it.'
Last week, the board voted to keep a book titled 'Sold' in the teen section of the library. The book is about a girl who has been trafficked throughout India — a book that many parents and local coalitions wanted relocated.
'We have volunteered our time to try to keep the family-oriented values and conservative values in Fairhope,' said Brian Dasinger with the Faith, Family, Freedom Coalition in Baldwin County.
We reached out to the Director of APLS, John Wahl, who provided us with the following statement on the Fairhope library: 'We have been clear that there are no exceptions or loopholes in the new code changes. Libraries must remove all sexually explicit books from children's sections in order to receive state funding.'
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Once all the books are reviewed, APLS members will determine whether the library's choices comply with the state's code.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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