Public speakers urge Columbia County to reconsider library shelving guidelines; legal risks and community division cited

Several residents used the public-comment period at the May 20 Columbia County Board of Commissioners meeting to press the county on recently adopted library shelving guidelines and to urge the board to reconsider or seek legal clarity.

Priscilla Bence (listed on the sign-in as Priscilla Bentz) told the board she appreciated some changes already made but asked that the county move adult literature downstairs and children/teen literature upstairs at the county library to reduce conflict over placement. “That would just solve 80% of the problem,” she said, and asked the county to prioritize clearer separation of age-appropriate collections to ease the library’s challenge process.

Karen Parham said she had spoken with multiple attorneys and expressed concern the county’s shelving guidelines could be a content-based restriction raising First Amendment issues. Parham said she had collected legal memoranda and letters and urged the commissioners to obtain an updated legal opinion from the county attorney before proceeding further: “Why are we, nonlawyers, debating legal issues in the first place?” she asked. Parham also referenced state-level legislation in a related context and said regional library officials had sought their own counsel.

Robert Heidman spoke in favor of the county’s shelving guidelines, saying many parents object to young-child access to particular LGBTQ-themed materials and arguing the guidelines function as a “guardrail” to keep materials age appropriate. He cited national-library controversy and urged the board to protect children in Columbia County.

Speakers on both sides referenced the American Library Association and national debates about collection-development standards. Commissioners listened but did not take formal action at the meeting; the matter was raised as public comment and delegates asked the Board and library officials to consider legal and policy implications.

Clarifying details provided by commenters: Parham said attorneys had raised the possibility that content-based restrictions would trigger strict scrutiny under the First Amendment; Heidman pointed to recent state legislative actions in several states and to a claim that some state governments were reconsidering association memberships over perceived ideological positions. Speakers requested that the county or library board obtain or publish updated legal opinions and consider shelving arrangements to reduce challenges and litigation risk.

The board did not vote on library-shelving policy during the meeting; commissioners heard the comments during the public-comment period and no formal board direction or policy change was recorded on May 20.