What's happening?
According to previous Community Impact reporting, the current committee is composed of five citizens appointed by the county judge and commissioners for four-year terms. Books within the county library system are able to be submitted for review before the committee by any cardholder of the Montgomery County Memorial Library System.
A number of residents spoke up during the Oct. 8 meeting that the policy approved by the court in March allowed nonresidents to submit books for review to the committee without any reasoning.
"It's kind of a messy policy there's stuff in here that needs to be fixed," Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said. "As was pointed out, we do need to make sure that if someone is going to file a complaint that they're a Montgomery County resident."
The details
The majority of concerns expressed by citizens surrounded the oversight and management over the library book review committee. Meetings of the committee are closed to the public, and the committee is able to require a library to remove or reassign books to different areas of the library according to the existing policy.
"I'm asking you to reassess your library reconsideration committee and its complete lack of oversight and transparency," said Teresa Kenny, a Montgomery County resident. "The policy also states that the board's decisions are final, no discussion, no review of what may have been misinterpreted or misjudged. There are no checks or balances on a committee made up of individuals who are not in library sciences."
Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough requested the item be tabled until the next meeting of Commissioners Court on Oct. 22, stating, "Let's table this discussion then, until we have a full court here, because I know Commissioner [Charlie] Riley would like to make a comment on this. We don't need to take action on it right now."
