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Library cancels volunteer-led story programs; drag story-hour proposal denied, oral-history collection to Arizona Memory Project
Summary
Commissioners were told the library denied a drag story-hour programming proposal and adopted a new policy limiting story-readers to library staff, which canceled rainbow reading hour; the oral-history collection will be hosted by the Arizona Memory Project while library approval is pending.
Commissioners heard a library working-group update describing recent changes to programming and an oral-history project.
The working-group representative said a name-change clinic had been well attended, but the library requested advertising edits to avoid alienating some audiences. A separate drag story-hour proposal submitted by a community member was denied; the library adopted a new policy that "only library staff can read stories moving forward," and the change will cancel rainbow reading hour (story time readings in Spanish, Navajo and ASL), at least for now.
Commissioners said they were concerned about the impact on representation and asked staff to seek the library's reasoning. The working-group report said the library administration made the decision and that the oral-history collection will instead be archived with the Arizona Memory Project while the library reviews the working-group's proposed consent form.
The commission discussed possible next steps: requesting more information about the library's new policy, whether alternative programs or staffing changes might preserve multilingual or volunteer-led story times, and whether the commission should place the item on a future agenda for a formal recommendation. No formal vote occurred at the meeting.
