Public urges Hernando County to cancel BookPage library subscription; attorney explains challenge process

Multiple public commenters asked Hernando County commissioners on April 14 to end the county libraries’ BookPage subscription, calling the magazine unnecessarily political and ideological and arguing it promotes material they do not want distributed in library branches.

"Hernando Public Libraries presently have a subscription to a magazine called BookPage," said Carol Yekim Oalvelo, a member of the public, who framed her concern as both an expense and a content objection. John Labriola, representing the Christian Family Coalition, said Citrus County had canceled the same subscription and urged Hernando to follow suit. Several other commenters raised similar objections and asked the board to act directly to stop the subscription.

County Attorney John Jovan and library staff told the board that the library’s collection-management policy includes a challenge process that allows patrons to file a materials-challenge form; the policy exists to ensure due process and to reduce legal risk to the county and the library. Library staff also said the BookPage subscription (150 copies distributed across four branches) costs $1,305 annually and is paid from state-aid grant funds rather than the libraries’ local operating budget.

The board asked staff to provide the complaint form to the petitioners and encouraged them to use the library’s established process if they wished to seek removal or modification of materials. Commissioners who opposed the subscription said they would support residents who submit formal challenges rather than the board directly acting as the challenger, because the library’s adopted procedures assign that role to the public and protect the county from litigation.