Coalition for An Inclusive Daviess County
DCC4D vs DCPL
In 2023, The Daviess County Citizens for Decency demanded that Daviess County Public Library fire their Executive Director and move some 240+ books from the children's and teen section to the adult section. Many of these books contained LGBTQ+ and BIPOC content.
Click for the list of books
See the initial report in the Owensboro Times here.
The library responded by reviewing the books and keeping the majority of books in their current location. A restricted access card was created so parents could choose to limit their children to only the juvenile book section. DCC4D did not find this satisfactory and has continued to attend Library Board meetings and re-hash the issue despite the Library Board stating that they consider it resolved. They have even contacted the employer of the library board President, attempting to get her fired.
Our coalition feels these books need to be protected and left in the juvenile and young adult sections where they can be accessed by their appropriate audience. This issue is one of the reasons our Coalition was founded.
Press Release
February 2, 2024
A group of community organizations and individuals have come together to form the Coalition for an Inclusive Daviess County. The group’s main concern is the negative impact recent actions by the Daviess County Citizens for Decency have had on the Daviess County Public Library and its Board.
1. When the Daviess County Citizens for Decency first approached the Library with its claim that there were “pornographic” books in the children’s section, the staff reviewed the 278 books about which the DCCD was complaining and determined that none of them were obscene. The Library then implemented the Limited Access Card to prevent children from checking out books to which their parents had objections. This should have resolved the issue.
2. The DCCD has continued to make Freedom of Information requests to the Library; has demanded that certain books in the young adult section be moved to the adult section for no reason other than the personal preferences of members of the complaining group; and continues to claim that there are obscene books in the Library. This has resulted in many hours of staff time spent in responding to the DCCD requests instead of tending to regular Library tasks.
3. In the list of 278 books that the DCCD complained about, there were books concerning race relations, diversity, and same sex marriage. This indicates that the group’s real goal is to keep Daviess County from being a welcoming, diverse and equitable community.
4. The Coalition for an Inclusive Daviess County is also concerned about who will be appointed to fill the current vacant position on the Library Board. The person who is appointed should be qualified, open minded, and not have a personal political agenda he or she wants to impose on the community through the Library Board.
5. The DCCD bases its claims that there are obscene books in the DCPL on an erroneous reading of the law. In Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973) the U.S. Supreme Court held that in determining whether a book or other work is obscene, the work must be taken as a whole and evaluated in accordance with contemporary community standards and when considered as a whole, the book must lack literary, artistic, political or social value in order to be deemed obscene. It is impossible to determine whether a book is obscene under the Miller ruling by reading only isolated paragraphs, which is what the DCCD does when it claims that the DCPL houses "pornography."
Through an FOI request, we uncovered that the requests made by DCC4D have cost taxpayers $35,000. Kentucky State Senator Gary Boswell responded to that information in a Letter to the Editor at the Owensboro Times.
"I am replying to the Messenger-Inquirer article about the library spending $35,000 to review books. If the director had checked these books before they hit the shelves maybe this wouldn’t have happened. The money was wasted and the director is responsible. Back in the olden days we said “the buck stops here.”
Taxing authority has been taken back from the library board and the board appointments have been changed back to the Judge-Executive. Why? Just quit putting books with social agendas or that violate community standards out. If you can’t read it out loud, print pictures or words in the newspaper, or if you can’t show pictures on the TV station, there is a good chance it violates community standards.
Written by State Senator Gary Boswell" (2/9/2024 Owensboro Times)
Our response:
Press Release
February 13, 2024
Regarding Senator Gary Boswell’s recent editorial, it unfairly characterized the Daviess County Public Library and its director, Erin Waller, as responsible for the estimated $35,000.00 of tax dollars
spent in reviewing and auditing materials at the request of the
Daviess County Citizens for Decency (DCC4D).
The original book list is seven pages long and contains nearly 250
book titles. DDC4D used a site called BookLooks to rate books of
concern. BookLooks is not an industry-recognized content rating
system and was founded in 2022 by former Moms for Liberty member Emily Maikisch. Dozens of the books requested for review by DCC4D do not appear to violate the “community standards” Mr. Boswell references in his
editorial.
Some example titles include:
• Lunch from Home: per BookLooks, it contains a character referenced
with the pronoun “their” a total of three times throughout the book.
• Magnolia Flower: A historical fiction love story between an escaped
slave and a Native American (with no sexual content)
• I Dissent: Ruth Bader-Ginsburg Makes Her Mark – BookLooks’ cited
concern is a historically accurate reference to racism and a mention
of the male-female pay gap
All three of these books, along with many others, were rated as a “1/5
– Lowest Concern” by DCC4D’s preferred rating system, so why were
they requested to be reviewed in the first place? In fact, of the
titles originally requested to be reviewed, DDC4D continues to take
issue approximately 40. Our library was forced to expend resources
and taxpayer dollars for a trivial exercise in removing so-called
“woke” content.
It is concerning that books written for children about topics such as
the achievements of women and factual historical events like the
enslavement of Black people are viewed as violating “community
standards”. Additionally, DCC4D has stated they wish to defund events
for Daviess County’s LGBTQ community. Our LGBTQ community pays taxes
like everyone else – they deserve representation as well.
So, what's happening now?
In December 2023, DCPL Board Member Harry Pedigo resigned before his term expired. This leaves a vacancy on the library board. Due to a law change in 2023, championed by current Daviess County Judge Executive Charlie Castlen and Former County Commissioner George Wathen (original board member of DCC4D), the library board no longer has control over new appointments. While they may submit names to the Judge Executive he is not required to choose one of the suggested candidates and may select his own. You can watch this candidate forum on YouTube where Judge Castlen talks about the law change and says he won't appoint any "activists" to the board. (The relevant portion begins at 17:50)
The DCPL board put forward two candidates with Masters's Degrees in library science, and Judge Castlen has chosen to reject those candidates. Because the term is unexpired, the KDLA (Kentucky Dept of Libraries and Archives) will now send him two new candidates. If rejects those, then he may choose any person he wishes. That person will have to be approved by the rest of the Fiscal Court. See the full OT Coverage here.
Here is the Messenger-Inquirer article quoting our members after we made a public comment at the Fiscal Court meeting on Feb. 22.
On February 26, 2024, our group sent a letter to Judge Castlen asking him to remove Commissioner Janie Marksberry as the Fiscal Court liaison to the Library. We copied the local media and the resulting articles can be found here and here. The Coalition's main concern is that Marksberry has spread disinformation about the library board on Facebook. She has continued to treat the DCPL as an antagonist rather than another agency for the Fiscal Court to cooperate and work with for common goals.
It's April, and this issue is still on-going. Judge Castlen has yet to select a nominee for the library board of directors. Our group has continued to show up at every Fiscal Court meeting and make a statement about our concerns. And even once a candidate is selected it doesn't end there. More DCPL Board positions will be up for re-appointment soon, and we know from our research that several of our elected officials want to "stack the deck" and take power away from the library and the citizens.
What can you do to help? Join our cause. Contact your County Commissioner and Judge Castlen and let them know that the extremists of the DCC4D don't speak for a majority of our citizens.
