The Arkansas State Library Board is proposing new rules that would require libraries to restrict minors' access to certain materials or risk losing state funding. Little Rock Public Radio's Ashton Burgess spoke to librarians about how the changes could have an impact on their communities.
While the Arkansas State Library Board considers proposed rules governing state aid to public libraries, librarians say they are worried about the services libraries could lose without enough funding. Under the proposal, libraries would have to place sexually explicit materials in sections designated for adults and require parental consent before anyone younger than 16 could check out those materials. Libraries that fail to comply could lose state aid.
Librarians who testified before the board also said many libraries are not physically designed to separate adult and children's collections. Some said they don't have enough staff or space to monitor who accesses materials or to create separate adult-only areas.
Allen Jarvis is the manager of the Central Arkansas Library System's Max Milam Library in Perryville. He says libraries provide a number of important community services.
"It's not just about checking out books anymore. It's internet access, use of our meeting room space, use of study space, printing, faxing, scanning to email. We have a digital library, so they might be at home using our library services at home and programming. We're very big into programming for children, homeschoolers, adults. We do all kinds of programming here."
Youth services librarian Trinity Neeley takes library programs into the community. She visits daycare centers for weekly story times. She also leads a monthly book club at both Perryville Elementary School and Anne Watson Elementary School. Neeley says bringing programs to students helps reach children who live too far away to regularly visit the library.
"About 15 years ago, we noticed a decrease in storytime numbers, and the solution to that was if the kids couldn't come to us, then we had to go to them. And so we took the initiative and took our story time on the road. And it's just opened lots of doors as far as being in the community and the schools really asking us what we can do for them."
Arkansas libraries recorded nearly 6.9 million visits last year. Patrons also logged nearly 3.5 million wireless internet sessions, according to the Arkansas State Library. Librarians say those are among the services they worry could be affected if libraries lose state funding under proposed rules.
Many residents use the library to access the internet. Perry County's broadband subscription rate trails the statewide average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Jarvis says state funding helps small libraries continue providing those services, and losing that support would be especially difficult.
"It's happened before when state funding was cut for small-town libraries. Some of them, they went under because of that. So yeah, it's very concerning for sure."
Jodi Morris is a specialty programmer at the Millie Brooks Library in Wrightsville, another branch of CALS. Many patrons of her library also rely on free internet services at the library. Morris says reductions in funding would affect services people cannot easily find elsewhere.
"Any reduction in budget, you know, affects all the services that we're able to provide, and a lot of people do come to the library for services that they could not afford to purchase. They don't have home internet. Resources are very limited. There's not a internet cafe that you can go to. There's no bookstores. And so having that service available here through the library is critical."
Arkansas distributes about $5.7 million in state aid to public libraries each year. That funding helps pay for library software, the statewide courier system that moves books between branches, summer reading programs, digital collections and research databases.
Many libraries also offer services beyond technology. During the summer, the Faulkner County Library in Conway serves free lunches to children and families three days a week. It also offers free tax preparation help, adult literacy classes, gardening programs and resources for small businesses.
John McGraw is the director of the Faulkner-Van Buren County Regional Library System. He says libraries continue taking on services as other community resources disappear.
"We're trying to be all things to all people, and we keep sort of absorbing tasks that everybody else seems to drop. But libraries just have this willingness to sort of absorb tasks that nobody else wants to perform. Sometimes just because if they don't get done, like how do we keep going on?"
McGraw says those services help create opportunities regardless of where someone lives.
"It really shouldn't matter what zip code you're born into as to what successes you have in life. But for a lot of people, that is true because without literacy, so many things are stacked against you in this world."
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