By DANIELLE ZULKOSKY
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
The decision to reshelve young adult books at the Hamilton East Public Library facilities in Noblesville and Fishers stems from its board’s recent updates to the Collection Development Policy.
That policy has been updated on three occasions – December 2022, January 2023, and April 2023 – according to a footnote on the document.
Complaints about specific books came as early as July 2021. As a result, the library staff, with the approval of the board, launched a two-part reorganization of the Teen Zone, where books for young adults are displayed.
Minutes from Feb. 4, 2022, and Feb. 24, 2022, board meetings show more concerns were expressed, this time about sex education books for high schoolers being available for middle schoolers.
So, in the first phase of reshelving, the high school books were moved to the adult section, and the middle school books were moved to the children’s section.
“That way people wouldn’t have to be concerned that their middle school kid, looking for a book about puberty, might read a book that was actually about sex,” said Kara Hwang, a Fishers resident.
Library Director Edra Waterman described that change as a common approach for nonfiction titles, and many patrons were on board with the change.
The change affecting nonfiction titles appears to be why Attucks!: How Crispus Attucks Basketball Broke Racial Barriers and Jolted the World by Phillip Hoose was moved to the adult section from the young adult section. Attucks! tells of the Black high school basketball team that broke the color barrier to win a state championship in 1950s Indiana.
Recently, concerns have been expressed that the 2018 book Attucks! was moved as a result of the most recent changes to the Collection Development Policy and its reshelving efforts.
The second phase of the recent reshelving efforts culminated in the creation of two sections in the Teen Zone: the middle school section and the high school section. Library staff took about five months to sort those books, completing the task by a July 28, 2022, board meeting.
In the current and third reshelving effort, library staff are required to read all the books in the Teen Zone from cover to cover to keep them shelved with other young adult (YA) books. If a library reviewer finds a single violation of the latest policy, the book is then reshelved in the adult general section as a result of the updated Collection Development Policy. The policy requires strict attention be given to nudity, alcohol and drug use, profanity, violence, and sexual content before a book is placed in the children or teen sections.
The policy also notes any book containing “explicit descriptions of sexual conduct” will not be shelved in the teen or children’s sections.
The board first discussed the latest update of the Collection Development Policy during a June 23, 2022, meeting prior to the library staff finishing the second phase of sorting the Teen Zone, according to the meeting minutes.
A draft of the updated Collection Development Policy was presented by library board members Laura Alerding, Tiffanie Ditlevson, and Ray Maddalone during an Aug. 23, 2022, special meeting.
The policy was ratified in a 4-3 vote on Jan. 26, 2023. Alerding, Micah Beckwith, Ditlevson and Maddalone voted “aye.” Michelle Payne, Andre Miksha, and Craig Siebe voted “nay.”
The third reshelving effort is ongoing. Library staff said they have reviewed just over 25 percent of the high school collection. According to the July 27 meeting agenda, as of July 20, 1,385 books had been moved from the Teen Zone into the adult section. Only 474 of the books reviewed through July 20 remained in the Teen Zone.
The latest effort was estimated to cost $335,000 over the two phases, according to the Operational Response Plan shared in March.
The library has faced backlash after Indiana author John Green called out the board policy when his most popular novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was reshelved. It was not immediately clear what triggered the book to be pulled.
Alerding over the weekend shared a statement with News 8 about the decision:
“Upon reviewing the page(s) of The Fault in Our Stars book that were the basis of the Director’s and review staff’s reason to move the book out of the Teen section, I believe there was an error in implementing the Collection Development Policy and that this book should be moved back to the Teen section immediately. The Board of Trustees will discuss further what went wrong with the review process at the next public board meeting.”
The next public meeting is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24 at the Noblesville library.
Alerding will be leaving the library board. She was originally appointed by the five-member Noblesville School Board, and her term will expire on Aug. 26. The school board on Tuesday night chose not to reappoint her to the library board. She will be replaced by Bill Kenley, a longtime Noblesville Schools English teacher. Alerding and another Noblesville School Board member voted against Kenley’s appointment.
Kenley sent a statement to News 8 after his appointment.
“I care deeply about education and literacy and am proud to represent Noblesville Schools on the Hamilton East Public Library board. At this time it would be premature of me to take a side on any issue without first studying the organization, its needs, and its current practices. I look forward to joining the board, learning more about the library, and serving the community in this role.”
The library director was following the policy given to her and her team. Now the board is trying to scapegoat her to detract from the negative national publicity our community is getting over the outrageous censorship going on via the policy they implemented.
None of the teen zone books under the Feb 2022 changes needed to be read cover to cover. They didn’t have to hire or train additional staff. They didn’t need to consult other attorneys or spend more than $110,000. They just needed to be divided by the usual age recommendations, labeled to reflect which age group they were in, and shelved appropriately. The Feb 2022 policy changes left all the teen FICTION in the Teen Zone, just divided by these age groups, and the teen NONFICTION went to be shelved with either children’s fiction (MS) or general collection fiction (HS/YA).
Please note that you can find all minutes on HEPL Trustee page.
https://www.hepl.lib.in.us/…/2-4-21-Board-Special…
https://www.hepl.lib.in.us/…/2022/02/boardMinutes_2422.pdf
https://www.hepl.lib.in.us/…/Board-Minutes-Feb.-24-2022…
There are multiple narratives being pushed as to why The Fault in Our Stars was moved, but that does not mean that it’s unclear why it was moved.
If one were to read TFIOS and then compare it to the current review policy as passed by the library board, the book had to be moved.
If the book were to be moved back, with or without a vote from the board, without changing the current review policy would be a violation of that policy.
I would like to add additional context as to why there is all the uproar by the community now, when there wasn’t back in early 2022. I have been attending library board meetings since Feb 2022 and was present when these policies were passed. The 2 policies put into place in Feb 2022 were a way to respond to community feedback, and they stayed WITHIN THE SCOPE STANDARD LIBRARY PRACTICES while NOT ENGAGING IN CENSORSHIP.
In contrast, the NEW Collection Development Policy, written by the current board, is way out of line with what any library in the country does. It goes against librarian professional and ethical standards. Four of the seven library board members want certain books moved due to their CONTENT, so pretty much each book needs to be carefully read. It’s going to move about HALF of the teen books (thousands and thousands of books). It will take at least 8,000 worker hours (they’ve had to hire and train several new people to complete the project), and it’s very expensive (estimated to cost well over $100,000).
If people don’t like certain books for their kids, they should either supervise their them and approve books before they are checked out, or they should discuss with teens what their family values are and what the expectations are for the media they consume. The board should not create a nanny state at the library by screening each and every item in order to shelter teens from ideas and situations that exist in the real world and that many teens are currently facing or will soon be facing. The teen years are an emotionally tumultuous period, and by moving these books out of the Teen Zone, some teens may be deprived of finding the books that they would find quite helpful and even potentially lifesaving.