Commissioners approve Columbia County move to single‑county library region; public speakers urge caution

Columbia County commissioners voted May 6 to seek withdrawal from the Greater Clarks Hill Library region and to become a single‑county region in the Georgia state library system, with the change to take effect Jan. 1, 2026, if the state approves the application.

County staff told the board the state recommended Columbia County as a candidate to be a single‑county region and preliminary state approval was in place for a Jan. 1, 2026, transition; staff said operationally the move would be largely transparent to users and that the county would continue to receive state resources such as the Pines catalog and Galileo. Staff estimated modest start‑up costs and said any small budget adjustments would be handled before final budget adoption; staff suggested those costs would likely be less than $30,000.

The board motion to withdraw from Greater Clarks Hill and become a single‑county region carried after a formal motion and second. Staff said a county‑appointed regional board would govern the county library region and that the state would continue to maintain certain positions, such as a regional director, under the single‑county model.

The decision prompted an extended public comment period focused on the library. Karen Parham, identified as CEO of the Freedom to Read Coalition of Columbia County, said an open records request showed county leadership had explored withdrawal from the state system and questioned whether the county would lose state funding or create duplicate local systems. Parham and others warned that withdrawing from the multi‑county region could be used to circumvent professional staffing requirements and enable censorship; she said nine books had been removed from shelves and two titles previously were banned in prior years, and asked the board to consider community concerns.

Several other residents and library professionals spoke. Adelaide Rawls described how her family uses the Evans branch and told commissioners she values the Pines connection for placing holds across the system. Mary Gaudette, a health sciences librarian with a master's in library science, urged the board to retain professional oversight and asked whether interlibrary loan and other services would continue; staff answered that existing services such as Pines would continue under the single‑county model. Other speakers asked the board to defer to library professionals for collection decisions and to ensure transparency in any operational or catalog changes.

Board members said the single‑county region option was presented after consultation with the state and staff recommended the change as a way to retain state services while increasing local governance of library policy. The motion carried; staff said they would submit the application to the state the next day if the board wished to proceed.