MIDLAND, Texas — Library policy and books deemed "harmful" have been a hot topic all throughout the year at Midland County Commissioners Court.
They took the spotlight once again at Monday's meeting as many members of the community flocked to the court to share their opinions.
The item was placed on the agenda after Commissioner Dianne Anderson and a group of volunteers went to Centennial Library earlier this month to help with the process of analyzing certain material in the kids section.
“After several conversations with the library director, I thought that it would be helpful if we pulled some books so we could help her get the books pulled out," Anderson said. "That was the whole intent, she met us at the library, she gave us a cart.”
However, some members of the court admonished the move, saying that they didn't know she had went down there and that it wasn't a true representation of the court.
"I want folks to understand, that wasn’t a true representation of our commissioner’s court," Commissioner Jeff Somers said. "I actually didn’t know about it until I read it in the newspaper."
Anderson, however, insisted that she and her volunteers wanted to help speed up a long and arduous task for the librarians.
“Just a group of citizens trying to be helpful, trying to move the process along because we are not getting responses on our reconsiderations," Anderson said. "These books continue to be in the library and they don’t need to be in the children’s section.”
Those reconsideration processes were another hot topic at the meeting.
Speakers on both sides have been confused on how to apply for a reconsideration form, which would see a librarian review books some deem "harmful" and decide on whether or not that book should be moved from the youth section to the adult section.
"There is a little bit of confusion about the policy that was adopted on August 4th and the reconsideration policy," Anderson said. "People here were speaking about reconsideration policies that they have followed and they have not gotten a response on the status of their reconsideration request."
Community members spoke both in favor and against moving books from the children's section.
While there are policies in place for reconsidering a book, there was an agreement that it was too slow of a process.
"I just want everybody to understand that we have policies in place that the community is trying to bring up here at this meeting," Somers said. "We have policies, they need to be executed on."
While the item was on the table for further discussion, the court did recommend hiring more help for the library to speed up the process of completing reconsideration forms.