Book Controversy Sparks Library Closure Debate
Columbia County is in Washington state's southeastern corner, a few miles away of the Walla Walla valley wine country. It's got a population of about 4,000 people, but this tiny pocket of the Pacific Northwest is getting national attention right now because it could be the very first county in the United States to close a library over controversial book titles.
Transcript
00:00 Welcome to Columbia County, Washington.
00:02 It's got a population of about 4000 people,
00:05 but this tiny pocket of the Pacific Northwest
00:08 is getting national attention right now
00:10 because it could be the very first county
00:13 in the United States to close a library
00:16 over controversial book titles.
00:18 As an outsider driving through its golden hills of wheat,
00:21 it's easy to understand why the people
00:23 of Columbia County, Washington want to protect it.
00:26 There's always somebody that will reach out
00:29 and help you in this community if you ask,
00:31 or sometimes even if you don't ask.
00:34 Deb Fortner is a wheat farmer
00:36 and has lived here her whole life.
00:37 She says she's one of the many people
00:39 hoping to protect Columbia County,
00:41 but she represents one of two fiercely opposed groups
00:44 going about doing it.
00:46 Wasn't surprised and knew it was time to hunker down
00:50 with the community and fight for our library.
00:55 At the center of the debate is the Dayton Memorial Library,
00:58 the only one in the county.
01:00 It's a place where in an area with spotty service
01:02 and long drives with access to the internet
01:05 and other information materials.
01:06 It's also the only free gathering space in the region.
01:09 One side, Deb's side wants to save the library.
01:12 The other side wants the library to be dissolved.
01:15 Both sides believe their will is for the good of the county.
01:19 The divide is over controversial book titles,
01:21 mainly LGBTQ+ themes with what some consider
01:25 to be sexually explicit descriptions.
01:27 The dissolve the library side claims all they want
01:29 is for the books to be moved out of the downstairs
01:32 children and young adult areas,
01:34 books they refer to as quote, pornography.
01:37 - If it's gonna go to that point where they are demanding
01:41 that one side only be represented,
01:45 then I'm gonna say, well, we do have to,
01:47 we have a issue there.
01:49 - Lorna Barth is the president
01:50 of the Friends of Dayton Library,
01:51 an organization that was created
01:53 to help the library fundraise.
01:54 And now it's the group that's fighting to save it.
01:57 - Our whole existence has been, you know,
01:59 making fun things and supplement things,
02:02 not the heavy duty of the possibility of what are you gonna
02:07 do to help save the library?
02:09 We don't know.
02:10 - So upstairs is where we moved all of the
02:14 young adult nonfiction.
02:16 - The library said it did move some books upstairs,
02:18 but not all.
02:19 And it hasn't removed any book outright from its collection.
02:22 The dissolve side said those moves are not enough.
02:24 Several back and forths in public meetings
02:26 and a growing list of titles later,
02:28 a petition to dissolve the library was passed
02:31 with 163 signatures.
02:33 In November, we'll come down to a county ballot measure
02:35 when 1,007 people will be eligible to vote
02:38 to save or dissolve the library.
02:41 - If they don't want to read it
02:42 or they don't want their children to read it,
02:44 that is their choice.
02:46 And I'm all for that, do as you please.
02:49 But if we remove them,
02:51 we'd be preventing anybody from reading it.
02:53 And I don't think that's our place at all.
02:55 - According to the American Library Association or ALA,
02:58 requests to censor library books
03:00 hit a 21 year high last year at 1,050,
03:04 a 70% increase from 2021.
03:06 No one from the dissolve the library side
03:08 wanted to sit down with me in person
03:10 saying that other journalists
03:11 did not represent their side fairly.
03:13 One man, however, Seth Murdoch,
03:15 agreed to answer questions over email.
03:16 He told me, "The biggest concern with this library
03:19 "is the procurement and display
03:20 "of sexually explicit books written for children and youth."
03:24 This story reflects conversations happening
03:26 in communities across the country.
03:27 The debate not only about certain books,
03:30 but the role of public and school libraries
03:33 and who should control what books
03:34 they have on their shelves.
03:35 As Columbia County's library garners national attention
03:38 as the first in the country
03:40 to be potentially closed over this issue,
03:42 I asked local residents what they want Americans
03:45 to take away from their story.
03:46 - Contact your own libraries.
03:48 See if they're hearing anything.
03:50 Be aware of what's happening.
03:52 I guess that's my warning.
03:53 It's just real.
03:57 They could take it away.
03:58 - Murdoch also answered the same question, writing,
04:01 "I would simply suggest that people look into
04:02 "the institutions that they directly fund
04:04 "to take responsibility of curating
04:06 "what is essentially theirs,
04:08 "to not be ashamed of the values and beliefs
04:10 "that they hold and to stand behind them."
04:12 For Deb Fortner, as she watches this play out
04:14 in her beloved community,
04:16 she hopes that people across the country
04:18 stay active and get informed.
04:20 - It doesn't matter how you vote.
04:22 Just vote educated.
04:24 Don't vote based on these emotions
04:27 that you hear spinning around.
04:30 Go do the research, take the time.
04:32 It's messy, it's painful.
04:34 Educate yourself.
04:35 - Vanessa Bishan, Eoscripts News,
04:36 Columbia County, Washington.