Dear Editor,

The Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County has a renewal levy on the Nov. 4 ballot. There is a group calling itself the Committee for Decent Libraries that is campaigning for the defeat of this levy because it does not approve of some books available to the public, specifically books dealing with transgenderism, which are in the young adult and children section of the library. This has been an ongoing issue with this group, which wants all books with which it does not agree removed. To put this in context, the library has approximately 65,000 items available, and 33 books dealing with transgenderism and LGBTQIA+ subjects.

The library is affiliated with the American Library Association and is bound by its bylaws and regulations, one of which is to not segregate books because groups or individuals do not approve of the content. If all books were removed because some individual or group did not like the subject matter, there would be few books to read. Religious books, including the Bible, could be removed because a group of atheists does not believe in God, or maybe because some think it is too violent, especially in the Old Testament. And don’t forget about the crucifixion of Christ.

“Mein Kampf” would go because people do not like Adolph Hitler, nor would “The Communist Manifesto” written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels be on the shelves.

Most do not agree with these last two, but they have historical significance. There are those who think many of Mark Twain’s books should be removed because they are written in the vernacular of his times, and by today’s standards are racist. The same with “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The list can go on and on.

The state has reduced library funding and our library will lose approximately $250,000 as a result. If this levy is defeated, it will lose approximately one-third of its remaining revenue and result in layoffs and reductions in services and hours. There are those with limited resources who are able to use the library to read newspapers, magazines and use computers at no cost to them. The public library is the greatest source of factual information there is and should not be regulated by the whims of any group objecting to what is being offered.

The committee states that although the defeat of the levy will reduce the library’s funding as stated above, the funding “could be restored after reforms.” Yes, but only after another levy is put on the ballot to restore the funding that would be lost. This is not a simple thing, and would be a new levy, not a renewal. This is a renewal levy and will not cost any more than what is presently being paid. It should not be defeated because certain people do not like certain books on the shelves. No one is forced to read them, but there are those who do, and their rights should not be censored by anyone.

Virginia Mascio

Steubenville