Library committee reviews material selection policies

Marshall Public Library board members and staff met for the first of five material selection policy committee meetings on Thursday, Oct. 26, at the Marshall Public Library.

Six of the nine committee members were on hand, and a small number of Marshall citizens sat in on the meeting.

The committee was established to form a "material selection policy." The new policy would be used as a guideline for selecting materials to be purchased for inclusion in the library's collection.

The formation of the policy comes as a result of a request by Marshall resident Louise Mills, to remove two graphic novels from the shelves.

The novels, "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel and "Blankets" by Craig Thompson, were deemed offensive by Mills and other members of the community who aired their views at a public hearing on Oct. 4.

At the committee meeting, Library Director Amy Crump gave each of the committee members in attendance copies of 10 established material selection policies of other libraries that she was able to contact.

The committee will look at other libraries' policies to help them form ideas for their own policy.

"There's no reason for us to re-invent the wheel if we don't have to," said Ann Aulger, vice-president of the library board.

Committee member Connie Grisier requested that more policies from libraries in Missouri cities of a similar size to Marshall be acquired for review by the committee.

There was some discussion over the usefulness of getting additional policies.

Grisier said that she did not want to "compare our policies to different-sized communities."

Crump replied that regardless of the size of the library, the material selection policies of various libraries are "incredibly similar."

After a short discussion, Crump agreed to search for such libraries and inquire about their material selection policies.

Crump noted that not all libraries have policies.

"I called the Sedalia library, because I wanted to look locally," Crump said. "They don't have one, so it's not just us."

Crump said that she would work on getting the additional policies and notify committee members when she acquired them.

Committee members then agreed to take home the policies in hand so that they could each have a chance to look through them.

Members agreed that they would come back to the next meeting to discuss ideas that they like and dislike in the other libraries' policies.

The committee will re-convene in the Marshall Public Library meeting room on Thursday, Nov. 26. The meetings are open to the public.

Contact Zach Sims at

marshallbusiness@socket.net