The start of this year marked the beginning of Governor JB Pritzker’s law requiring Illinois public libraries to choose between giving up state grants and banning books. However, this didn’t have much impact on some local libraries, including the Altamont School District’s library, the Altamont Public Library and the Effingham Public Library.
Effingham Public Library Director Amanda McKay explained that the Effingham Public Library has had the Library Bill of Rights in place since before she started working there 13 years ago, so the law didn’t have much of an effect on applying to the one state grant they apply for annually: The Public Library Per Capita Grant.
The grant is available to all public libraries and is noncompetitive. Effingham receives around $18,000 from it, which they use towards purchasing materials and marketing support.
In the Effingham Public Library’s policy, they have an outlined process they follow if a patron finds an item objectionable.
When this happens, she offers alternative solutions that don’t involve removing the item from the collection. But if they can’t find a solution, it goes before the board, which includes a discussion between the board and the patron. From there, the board makes their decision.
McKay says there have been patrons who have objected to items before, but only one made it to the board throughout her years of working there. It was a Young Adult book, but McKay couldn’t recall the title.
“If a patron does come in and has an objection to the item, we always want to have that conversation with folks and let them know … what the steps are,” said McKay. “If they do wish to take it further, we’re fully in support of that. That’s their right as a patron to do that.”
McKay believes the intent of the law is to let libraries make choices for their community that reflect the entire population.
“From my perspective, the law is about making sure that libraries have policies in place so that they can make material selection that is for the benefit of the entire community,” said McKay. “That’s what we in the library world call this, ‘material selection.’”
The Altamont Public Library also has a policy for if a patron finds an item objectionable, as well, but in the 25 years Director Beth Speers has worked there, she’s never seen this.
“We just haven’t needed it,” said Speers. “I think most people understand that in a public library, everything is not going to be of interest to every person, and if you don’t want to check something out, you don’t have to … I think that’s how most of our patrons view it.”
Like the Effingham Public Library, the Altamont Public Library also applies for the Public Library Per Capita grant every year for which they receive about $3,000. The library uses the extra income for things like their summer reading program, materials for each age group and other needs as they arise.
Altamont Unit 10 applies for a state grant every year, as well, except they apply for the School District Library Grant instead of the Per Capita Grant.
According to superintendent Casey Adam, the district has applied for it every year since before she started working there four years ago.
“We are getting $850 a year, and that is just for the grade school because … we have a district librarian, but she spends the bulk of her time at our grade school,” said Adam. “You have to have a librarian in your library x number of hours per week in order to be eligible for multiple buildings, if that makes sense.
Adams says they use the grant money for replacing missing books and adding new ones to their collection.