Parental guidance labels – a “content notice review policy” – not yet implemented
A new parental guidance labeling policy, intended to alert parents of young readers about mature themes in Alamance County library materials, is being implemented in such a piecemeal fashion it borders on obstruction, according to a member of the county’s library committee who helped to shepherd the policy to adoption by Alamance county’s commissioners this spring.
Formally titled a “content notice review policy,” the library’s labeling policy provides for a review of children’s or teen library materials when a patron requests a review based on content such as: graphic violence; explicit sexual content or references; substance use; suicide or self-harm; and/or profanity or other strong language. A formal request for a review must be submitted to Alamance County’s library director, Susana Goldman, and vetted by a staff-level review committee.
If the staff review committee concludes that a library book (or other media) warrants an advisory label, a sticker reading, “Parental Guidance Suggested – See catalog for details” is placed on the spine of the book or elsewhere; a note is also placed in the library catalog, based on the policy that the commissioners adopted this spring.
Cheryl Sandford, a Burlington home-school mom and former English teacher who currently serves as vice chairman of the county’s library committee, helped to develop the “content notice review policy” and lobbied Alamance County’s commissioners to adopt it in April.
Her issue in the interest arose after seeing a display of “highly-sexualized” books outside the children’s reading area at May Memorial Library in the spring of 2022, Sandford recalled in an earlier The Alamance News.
Her fears were later amplified by materials shelved nearby in the young adult section, featuring pornography, violence, suicide, and the occult shelved nearby in the young adult section, Sandford recalled in a recent interview. “It is the darkest part of the library,” she said. When she lobbied the commissioners to adopt the new labeling policy this spring, Sandford presented them with library books, written for children and adolescents, depicting graphic nudity, suicide, and issues such as gender identity that she said are available through the county’s library branches.
Now five months later, Sandford contends that the library system has failed to fully implement the new labeling policy. The form to request a “content review” is nearly impossible to locate on the library’s website, though hard copies are available at each library branch or for download through the library’s website.
A “Content Notice Review Request Form” must be filled out, scanned, and either emailed, mailed, or hand-delivered to the library director to initiate a review, according to the policy that the commissioners voted unanimously to adopt on April 21.
“What are we in the stone age here?” Sandford asked rhetorically. “In its current form, it’s not user-friendly. It doesn’t serve the patron; it doesn’t serve the people who are being taxed [to support the library’s operations]. It’s crossed the line into being obstructionist…It hasn’t been fully implemented – it’s drips and drabs.”
A link to the content notice review request form, as it is formally termed, “is at the bottom of everything,” Sandford said, adding that neither the policy nor the form could be located using the most basic, universal method – a keyword search.
In mid-August, a clearer description of the link to the form was posted on the library’s website, under a section titled “Policies, Forms, and more” – but at the time was still hidden from view and unable to be located with a keyword search. (More recently, the description for the link has been revised to read: “to request parental guidance suggested label.”)
“This was an improvement; that was done within 24 to 48 hours,” Sandford acknowledged. But she has also asked for the form to be linked to the drop-down menu for the “Kids” and “Teens” sections and available through the library system’s mobile app.
Sandford has also asked the library director since early June to create an electronically “fillable” form that could be submitted directly through the library website.
“[That way] you don’t have to handwrite all of your objections; you don’t have to travel to May Memorial [Library] to deliver the form; you don’t have to address and stamp an envelope and send it to the director,” said the vice chairman of the county’s library committee. Informing patrons that there’s a mechanism to request a review, and then applying a sticker to children’s and teen library materials when warranted, “is a small service to ask of a publicly-funded library system,” Sandford said.
Despite her frustrations with the rollout of the policy, Sandford emphasized that all of her “interactions with Goldman have been overwhelmingly positive.”
Library director says one content review request has been submitted since policy took effect
Goldman recently confirmed for the newspaper that one content review request had been submitted since Alamance County’s commissioners adopted the policy in April.
“This is not the same as the movie labeling system,” the director told the newspaper, referring to the system established in 1968 by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) that assigns movie ratings such as G for general audiences; PG for parental guidance suggested; and R for restricted, requiring anyone under the age of 17 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
The content review request was submitted for The Action Bible (New Testament), which Goldman described as a graphic novel shelved in the teen section.
The following “content indicators” were listed on the “content notice review request” for The Action Bible (New Testament), according to Goldman: domestic violence, patricide, genocide, familial violence, implied nudity, murder, and infanticide. A “Parental Guidance Suggested – See catalog for details” sticker was placed on the item following the staff-level review.
The Action Bible (New Testament) is an illustrated version of the Bible that’s typically sold in Christian bookstores and is intended to bring “the Word of God to life through original, fund, and engaging experiences” for younger readers, according to a synopsis from the publisher.
However, the library’s website is currently too low-tech to create a “fillable” form that can be transmitted directly online, Goldman told the newspaper. “We don’t have a way to use an interface in that manner,” she said. “Mostly through email is how we communicate with the public – or in person. There’s no way to hit ‘submit’ and send in [a content review request].”
The form can be found online at: https://library.alamancecountync.gov/about/news-policies-and-more/
