The library guidelines, along with the recent actions of a library board member, were the topic of public comments at the Columbia County Board of Commissioners meeting on March 18.
Marlena Bergeron spoke about what happened at Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library Board and Columbia County Library Board meetings last week. She said that board chair David Davis was asked to step down after he was seen in Atlanta offering support for Senate Bill 74, which has to do with libraries and the distribution of harmful materials to minors. She also asked the boards to reconsider the guidelines and vote on them again, which they did not do.
“A lawyer on a taxpayer funded retainer was present at the regional board,” Bergeron said. “Dr. Sandra Carraway’s last action as the chair was to nominate David Davis as the chair, unaware, unconcerned or in alignment with his support of criminalizing librarians. Hillary Millar, who publicly supports SB 74 was nominated as vice chair. Blatant partisan activism by library board members and the vaguely discriminatory guidelines are violations of the Columbia County Library bill of right. Out of 159 counties in Georgia, I don’t know why we need an additional set of guidelines filtering our book collection. Nor do I understand anyone who would want to criminalize librarians at the state level and deputize patrons and county officials, elected or appointed.”
Bergeron then asked how many of the Board of Commissioners support their appointed library board members SB 74, with all four commissioners raising their hands (Chairman Doug Duncan was absent from the meeting.)
“Do you agree Davis should be lobbying for SB 74, especially now that he’s responsible for leading the board, public meetings and authorizing book procurement funds,” Bergeron said. “Do we really want our taxpayer funded police arresting librarians? SB 74 is a home-grown effort, just like the Columbia County guidelines.”
Bergeron spoke to the commissioners about the guidelines, which she called “unnecessary and unconstitutional,” and asked them to speak out against SB 74.
Karin Parham, the chair and founder of the Freedom to Read Coalition of Columbia County, also asked for the guidelines to be rescinded and David Davis to be removed from both the Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library Board and Columbia County Library Board. She presented the commissioners with a list she created of books that have been reclassified since 2024, with a majority having LGBTQ content.
“Regardless of your intent when passing the guidelines, it has disproportionally affected those books,” Parham said. “Also, over 90% of the books challenged in our county are challenged for LGBTQ content.”
She added that because commissioners appoint the library board members, their actions are a reflection on the commission.
“When a board member takes it upon himself to go to Atlanta to lobby for legislation that would jail librarians who he is supposed to be advocating for, it brings up questions,” Parham said. “When the same board member is seen carrying a binder with a Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library logo on it, which presumably was their welcome binder. He takes it up to Atlanta with organizations that are also posting some controversial content, including anti-LGBTQ content, which adds more context to this list. It raises huge ethical red flags. Then we have other board member that are publicly commenting on media articles and signing petitions. I won’t get into everything that I know, but some of your appointees are very publicly showing an outrageous amount of bias on the library board. At the very least, we as an organization are calling for Mr. Davis to step down from both the county and regional boards.”
Melear responds to comments
Following the public comment, District 1 Commissioner Connie Melear responded and showed two images in the graphic novel “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe which showed a sexual act occurring.
“There are some pictures in some of the books that had been intended to be shown for our children’s section,” Melear said. “If I took a picture of this and handed it to one of these children, one of these Boy Scouts out in the park, they would put me in jail. It’s not ok…it was intended for the children’s section. It’s a cartoon. It has no business being in the children’s section.”
The book was previously located in the graphic novel section but was moved to the adult section of the Columbia County library. It was reshelved due to moderate profanity and moderate sexual content
The PINES catalog online shows that libraries throughout the state have the graphic novel in different sections, including young adult graphics, graphic novel, young adult, adult, young adult non-fiction, young adult biography and non-fiction. The publisher recommended age and grade is 16 years and up and 10th grade and up.
