Librarians fear impacts of latest bill on explicit materials

A bill mandating that libraries make any sexually explicit material inaccessible to minors has librarians across the state nervous about potential ramifications to their institutions.

Unless such materials are partitioned away from minors’ access, Senate Bill 2307 would put libraries at risk of losing state funding and subject librarians to a class B misdemeanor charge for noncompliance.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Keith Boehm, R-Mandan and supported by several other Republican senators, including Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot, went through a first reading Jan. 20. It has not yet been subject to public hearings as of Jan. 29, 2025.

The bill is similar to SB 2360, which passed the 2023 Legislature before being vetoed by then-Gov. Doug Burgum, who argued it would have been an enormous burden on public libraries.

A separate bill that did pass last session, HB 1205, required screening for explicit materials in sections of libraries designated for children, something libraries were doing already.

Divide County librarian Traci Lund, who was named 2024 Librarian of the Year by the North Dakota Library Association in October, doesn’t know if she could make her library compliant and said the rule would impact using students 17 and under to help stack books.

Since the elementary school library is attached to the county library, fully separating material that may be explicit to some, but not others, could be problematic, Lund said.

“If this went through and we had to create our own rooms or whatever, I don’t think that’s feasible for our library,” Lund said. “I’m worried. I’m worried this can’t withstand in our community, and that’s terrifying and scary.”

Boehm said he introduced the bill to prevent the sexualization of minors, and argued the 2023 bill was not effective.

“The material was merely moved out of the children’s section and is now being shopped in the adult section,” he said.

Asked for specific examples, Boehm declined to offer them and said they’d be presented during testimony.

Boehm suggested most libraries would have less than 50 books potentially deemed explicitly sexual. It’s not clear who would decide what constitutes sexually explicit material.

“A simple cabinet that would hold 200 books would suffice in most circumstances,” he said.

For her part, Lund said, she’d never had a complaint about potentially explicit sexual material in her collections being accessible to minors.

“I’ve been in the library for 16 years and have never had one complaint,” she said.

Lund’s remarks echo other librarians across the state, regarding both a lack of complaints and the inability to comply with the potential rules.

Specifically, smaller rural libraries, where collections are often in one main room, could face a problem.

Andrea Placher, president of NDLA and director of Williston Community Library, said the association believes the bill is unnecessary and library staff across the state are already trained on what needs to go where in their libraries.

Since the 7,500 square feet of public space in her circular, open library is accessible to all, the rules would impact any worker under 18 as well as guardians from taking minors around the library if sexually explicit material is theoretically available.

“There’s a lot of gray area here, because ‘sexually explicit’ could mean a lot,” she said.

Placher is also concerned about the ability of small libraries to comply.

“Then, what would happen is, do we have to disallow children into the library? I know that sounds very dramatic, and obviously that's not what we want, but for some of these libraries, that honestly might be the case,” Placher said.

Hogue declined to comment on the bill, saying he’d not fully studied it yet.

Sen. Kent Weston, R-Sarles, said he supports the bill because he wants to protect young children from pornography.

“What some deem as education and some deem as pornography is a different thing from one person's perspective to another, but I do not think it's unreasonable to ask that things be put away, and that young children, in my opinion, should not be exposed to,” Weston said.

Randi Monley, a librarian in Minot and co-chair of Right to Read ND, said the bill is misdirected.

“I mean, your kid’s not coming into the library for that, and honestly, if you’re looking for something that explicit, you’re not going to find it in the library,” Monley said.

Complaints about books were previously few and far between, she said. One recent complaint that led to a review came from a book about presidents which mentioned some of them had mistresses.

“A parent thought that was too explicit for her children, so it went to the director to decide if it should be in the children’s or the teen section. It had really high reviews and was a well-researched book,” she said.

Monley said these bills make librarians nervous because opposition “can be anything that they don’t like in a book.” She said some librarians have gotten hate mail, been stalked, left the profession or moved to other institutions.

Janet Anderson, a librarian in Minot and library director there until March 2023, said one of the reasons she left was because of pressures placed on librarians during the past legislative session and harassment from some members of the community.

This included people calling librarians “groomers.” In one instance, a man aggressively asked at a board meeting where she “kept the Penthouse” magazines.

For the most part, the bill is pushing something libraries already abide by, Anderson said. They all have policies to guide what is included and what is withdrawn, and follow tests of obscenity set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“My biggest concern is that this would unfairly impact small libraries which already struggle,” she said. “Small, rural libraries are often only one room, so it would be impossible for them to keep books in a place where minors can't be present.”

She and other librarians also mentioned how this legislation could further impact the profession, by making it impossible for those 17 and under to work in a library and in attracting others to the state.

“It is already extremely difficult to get qualified librarians to come work in North Dakota, and this makes it even more difficult,” Anderson said.

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