03-03-2025
Jamestown residents protest bill targeting library content
Mar. 3—JAMESTOWN — About 40 people showed up in front of the Alfred Dickey Public Library on Saturday, March 1, in Jamestown to protest a bill in the state Legislature that targets library content.
Senate Bill 2307 would prohibit public libraries and school districts from maintaining explicit sexual material in an area accessible to minors.
Right to Read ND — a nonpartisan group of parents and citizens dedicated to defending the state's right to access information freely and without discrimination — organized local read outs across North Dakota on Saturday. From 2 to 2:30 p.m., participants read silently on the sidewalk outside their local libraries.
Barb Lang, local coordinator for Right to Read ND, said the turnout in Jamestown was "great" considering there wasn't much time to organize the read out.
"We've got people here I certainly didn't realize are going to be coming," she said.
She said the participants were quietly indicating that they don't support Senate Bill 2307 and want it to die in the House.
"We hope our local legislators in the house will oppose the bill," she said.
Jamestown resident Olivia Schloegel, who participated in the read out, said the wide variety of people who came on Saturday shows there is wide opposition to SB 2307.
"It's a bill that's just not needed," she said. "Our libraries have mechanisms for making sure the appropriate books are in the appropriate spaces. Parents go to the library with their children. Libraries should be a place of exploration, not government overreach in terms of what we should or shouldn't read."
James River Valley Library System Director Joe Rector said the read out was not organized by the library system but the support in opposition to SB 2307 was appreciated.
"There are so many readers who are here and they are all here expressing their support for the library and for information freedom and for making sure materials in the library reflect our entire community," he said. "It's really affirming to us who work at the library to see the passion that everyone has for upholding the library as really central to what we do in our community when essentially, intellectually, this is a place where people can get information that they need for their lives."
The North Dakota Senate passed SB 2307 on a 27-20 vote. The bill was sent to the House for consideration.
Sen. Cole Conley, R-Jamestown, who voted in support of SB 2307, said it is the right for anyone to protest in opposition to a bill.
"It's a free country," he said.
Conley said he voted in favor of the bill because it doesn't make sense to have what people might consider explicit sexual material in the children's section.
"I think that's perfectly reasonable to say that you just can't have it in the children's section of the library," he said.
Sen. Terry Wanzek, R-Jamestown, also voted in favor of SB 2307.
SB 2307 would require public libraries and school districts to develop a policy and review process by Jan. 1 for library collections to ensure explicit sexual material is not in an area accessible to minors. The policy must include a procedure for the relocation of materials to an area not easily accessible to minors upon a request from an individual to relocate explicit sexual material, the activation of a diverse decision-making committee to reconsider the relocation of explicit sexual material in the library if the individual is unsatisfied with the relocation of the material, and to refer an individual to to an obscenity review procedure by a local state's attorney if the individual is not satisfied with the result of the decision-making committee's decision on a relocation.
The bill also requires safety policies and technology protection measures for digital or online database resources offered by a school district, state agency or public library to students in grades K-12. The bill requires a school district, state agency or public library to have safety policies and technology protection measures to prohibit and prevent a user of the resource from sending, receiving, viewing or downloading materials constituting an obscene performance of explicit sexual material and to filter or block access to that material.
If a provider of digital or online library resources fails to comply with having safety policies and technology protection measures, the school district, state agency or public library shall withhold any further payments to the provider pending verification of compliance, the bill says.
The bill also creates an obscenity review procedure where any person may request a local state's attorney's opinion to review if material in a library or school district has explicit sexual material. The state's attorney would need to issue an opinion on the alleged violation within 60 days to the interested person, provider of digital or online library database resources, school district, state agency or public library under review.
If it is determined that a public library or state agency is in violation, the state's attorney shall defer any prosecution and notify the public library, state agency or school district. After the notice is received, the public library, state agency or school district must take corrective action to comply with the law within 10 days.
If the public library or state agency fails to comply with the law within 10 days, the state's attorney would notify the state treasurer if a violation has occurred at a public library or state agency or the superintendent of public instruction if a violation has occurred at a school district. The state treasurer or the superintendent of public instruction would not distribute funds to the school district, state agency or public library until the state's attorney has determined either of the entities are in compliance with SB 2307.
The state's attorney may prosecute for failure to comply with the law.
Conley said SB 2307 is not a bill to ban books.
"They just don't want those materials to be accessible to young children," he said. "They can still be in the library. They just can't be in the children's section."
Lang said the turnout at the read out shows that many people feel SB 2307 goes against their First Amendment rights.
"It's a very, very important right, and we don't want to see it diminished at all," she said. "
Lang said the collection of materials is well managed by the James River Valley Library System staff.
"This library takes excellent care and watches over children, students from the junior high particularly come here and do their homework after school," she said.
Schloegel agreed.
"This library is safe for kids," she said. "We've got great staff. We've got a great, caring community here. To waste the precious time these lawmakers have in Bismarck on bills like this is pretty frustrating."
Conley said he doesn't have any concerns with the James River Valley Library System having explicit sexual material that is accessible to minors. He said a list of libraries across the state was sent to him that had a few objectionable books but the James River Valley Library System was not on it.
The cost estimate was $54,500 for the library system employees to review materials in the children and teenagers sections for explicit sexual material after the Legislature passed a bill in 2023 to remove or relocate that material, The Jamestown Sun reported in June 2024. At the time, Rector said it took an estimated 2,770 hours for 15 employees to review the materials.
"That's not the state paying for that," Schloegel said. "That's the taxpayers of Jamestown paying for their librarians to have to do this."
Conley said that cost estimate is not true. He said the task was part of the employees' salaries.
"Just because they had them reading some books which they wouldn't have had to do ... it was my understanding that libraries were furnished a list of the books that were kind of deemed objectionable and all they had to do was grab them and move them to a different section of the library," he said. "They made a bigger deal of it than it really was, I thought, and they are trying to do that again."
Lang and Schloegel urged concerned citizens to contact their local legislators about SB 2307.
"If people read about this and want to do more, there's a way to submit testimony online against this bill when it goes to committee, and most importantly, you can individually reach out to your representatives," Schloegel said.
