You may remember the headlines from March, when the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) paused the Fairhope Public Library’s state funding, and library supporters rallied to make up the $42,000 shortfall in just a few days. The story of one library’s stand against censorship and the community’s overwhelming support made national – even international – news, and inspired people across the world.
Since then, much has happened...
The APLS put out a non-binding memo that it claimed would “clarify” the term “sexually explicit,” but which was actually so overbroad it would sweep up everything from To Kill a Mockingbird and Anne Frank’s Diary to Shel Silverstein and Maurice Sendak. Luckily, legal experts say this memo has no weight, and the Alabama Library Association called on APLS to rescind it.
In the meantime, the Fairhope Public Library board has been plugging along, doing exactly what APLS leaders publicly said they wanted. They launched and completed a re-reconsideration of YA materials that had been challenged and appealed prior to APLS' 2024 code changes. With state funding at stake, Fairhope’s trustees read and re-reviewed more than a dozen titles, book by book, weighing each against Fairhope’s APLS-approved library policies and taking into account the work as a whole, its intent and its literary merit. The local board ended up moving 6 books they decided were more appropriate for older teens; and they voted to keep an additional 11 titles right where they were in the library’s newly opened Teen Space. This is how the reconsideration process is supposed to work, and proof that Fairhope’s trustees are taking their responsibilities seriously.
To give perspective, Fairhope’s cataloging practices have long erred on the conservative side. For example, George Johnson’s coming-of-age memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue has always been shelved in Adult Biography in Fairhope, while many Alabama libraries place it in the Young Adult section. Likewise, Boy Toy — which Fairhope’s board voted to move to adult after review — is cataloged as YA in the vast majority of Alabama libraries that own it. If Fairhope is an “outlier,” it’s only for being more conservative than most.
But that has mattered little to the APLS board, bent on retaliation and intent on moving the goalposts ever farther. In March, the APLS board framed the pause in funding as a temporary thing until Fairhope agreed to revisit the previously decided appeals. But even as Fairhope’s board completed the re-reviews, APLS board member Amy Minton began insisting that funding would resume only if books were removed or relocated on APLS’s terms— stating on the record that if “the books are removed within 30 days, funding can be turned back on.”
The Fairhope Public Library is and always has been fully compliant with APLS rules as written, but the APLS board keeps asking for more and more. This is clear government overreach.
The APLS board will meet on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 1:00 p.m. to decide Fairhope’s fate, and the decision they make will reverberate across Alabama. If you believe in intellectual freedom and local control, we need to hear your voice next week in Montgomery.
Show Up on Sept. 18 (and Bring a Friend)
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When & where: Thursday, Sept. 18, 1:00 p.m. CT
Alabama Public Library Service (Board Room)
6030 Monticello Drive, Montgomery, AL
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How to speak: Fill out this form and email it to Vanessa Carr at [email protected]. You’ll have two minutes to get your point across.
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From Baldwin/Mobile? Carpool with neighbors: https://forms.gle/hUuyC1WgMs3z5vA79
A Simple Two-Minute Script You Can Use
Introduce yourself, then anchor four points:
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Parental choice: “Fairhope’s tiered card lets me decide what my child can access. That’s the right balance.”
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Local process: “Our board re-read challenged books in full, moved some, kept others. That’s how the process is supposed to work.”
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Policy, not politics: “The standard is whether a work as a whole lacks serious value for minors—not whether it mentions sex.”
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The ask: “Please restore Fairhope’s funding and reject viewpoint-based or automatic relocation rules. Respect local control, professional ethics, and parental choice.”
Close kindly. We’re defending a public good, not attacking our neighbors.
Final Word
No one wants explicit materials in front of small children. That’s a straw man. What we want is exactly what Fairhope already provides: age-appropriate teen books in the Teen section, a clear path for parents to restrict their own child’s access, and a locally driven, constitutionally sound review process when challenges arise. The alternative is letting the loudest voices—and shifting political winds—dictate what everyone else’s kids can read.
Fairhope has done everything by the book. On Sept. 18, let’s make sure the APLS board does, too. Restore funding. Respect local control. Reject censorship.
See you in Montgomery.