Protect Intellectual Freedom and First Amendment Rights – Flathead Beacon

I am concerned about the new direction the three newest trustees are taking the ImagineIF Libraries.

Doug Adams, David Ingram and Heidi Roedel (the three newest trustees) demonstrated this new direction at the last three board meetings. At the Dec. 2 meeting Adams rightly pointed out that our library, along with most public libraries in the country, use documents from the American Library Association (ALA) to help guide policy decisions. Adams rejects ALA guidance: I find them [the ALA tenets] to be hindering and I dont find them to be genuine. The fact of the matter is, change is hard, but political winds blow, and they blow in different directions. Adams further said, It would be my goal to disassociate from them [the ALA] completely and rewrite policy accordingly.

Adams comments show that he objects to a library that stands for the free access of materials from all points of view. Instead, he intends to bring partisan politics into ImagineIFs policies. The current library policies benefit everyone, regardless of their political leanings.

Ordinarily it would not matter what personal opinion Trustee Adams has, because personal opinion is not what drives library acquisitions. But Adams intends to rewrite library policy based on his political views. Ingram and Roedel share his views.

After the Jan. 13 meeting Adams said he has already started rewriting library policies. In light of what Adams has said at board meetings, these rewritten policies will discard the intellectual freedom our library has protected and remove free access to materials of differing views.

Many of us love the library precisely because it champions freedom of speech and intellectual freedom. Please write our commissioners and trustees to make it clear that this community wants a library that is strong in protection of intellectual freedom and First Amendment rights.

Alice EbiKalispell

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Protect Intellectual Freedom and First Amendment Rights - Flathead Beacon