Jackson-Madison County Library to reclassify dozens of books after board meeting

JACKSON, Tenn. — The Jackson-Madison County Library Board met Feb. 25 to address several book reconsideration forms the library received, with library director Dinah Harris presenting findings and asking the board to consider a new parental permission policy.

Harris asked the board to consider requiring parents of teens to sign a permission slip before their children could access adult-rated books.

Harris said she spent hours researching the challenged titles and determined that none of the books at the Jackson-Madison County Library meet the legal definition of obscene.

Two of the challenged books will remain in the young adult category. 37 books referenced in the meeting minutes will be reclassified to the adult section. One titled, The Midnight Lie, is slated to be removed from circulation due to non-use.

Board of Trustees Chair Phillip Mullins said the challenge list appears to be tied to a broader national effort.

“The ladies that have challenged the books have looked at the young adult area and most of the books on the list come from a site called Take Back the Classroom,” Mullins said. “There’s kind of a nationwide movement to look at books.”

Mullins noted that the library’s open layout means books in any section are accessible to anyone who walks in.

“You can come in here as a citizen, or anybody for that matter, wander in, pick a book off the shelf, and sit down and read it and if you’re not leaving with the book, you don’t need a library card,” Mullins said. “A teenager could wander into the adult area, come in, and accidentally or maybe they’ve heard about a book. They could pluck a book out and read it.”

Harris said the library is tracking checkouts of the challenged books by age group using library card data.

“One of the things with a library card is since you have a children’s area, young adult’s area, and adults area, obviously we’ve divided that into age groups and so when she looks at it, she can tell which age group checked that book out,” Mullins said.

Harris said she can also cross-reference other library copies of the same books and use artificial intelligence to check for specific passages, because many of the complaints did not match page numbers in the library’s copies of the challenged books. That discrepancy suggests the challengers likely did not use Jackson-Madison County Library’s copies and may have sourced information from other websites without reading the books directly.

Because the Jackson-Madison County Library is a public institution open to more than children and teens, officials said they will not be removing books. Instead, the library is exploring ways to limit access to age-inappropriate material.

The next library board meeting is scheduled for March 25, where officials said another update on the matter is expected.

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