Libraries Should Represent All, Not Just the Loudest

As a fairly recent transplant to Front Royal but one who has fallen in love with the community, I am hoping you will hear me out in regard to the debate concerning the Samuels Public Library.

I grew up in a sincerely conservative Evangelical family of six in rural Orange, Virginia, where our public library was a mainstay in a town with limited access to literature. My parents were devout in their faith but also in their love of our library. They provided guidance in my and my siblings’ reading habits but also allowed us to explore and find the boundaries of what we were comfortable with. In retrospect, I see this as their rights as parents — perhaps not every Christian would have permitted their children to read as freely, but this was their personal choice. Even those who proclaim themselves as Christian have a diversity of beliefs and of parenting.

This is why it’s so disheartening to me to see a minority of the Front Royal community attempting to choose for all and to push for only their viewpoint to be represented in our library’s collections.

My own love of libraries led me to become a librarian in adulthood — and while I don’t work in a public system, I understand the values of a public librarian. Our librarians, library staff, Board of Trustees, volunteers, and Friends of Samuels Public Library are all invested in serving a diverse community, regardless of their personal beliefs. It is so important that those responsible for such a valuable public institution understand responsible collection development in acquiring books that represent the many rather than the few. In libraries, we see atheist librarians who purchase Christian fiction to serve their religious constituents. We see conservative librarians willing to purchase children’s books with LGBTQ+ representation for families with same-sex parents. We see progressive librarians who will purchase the memoirs of Republican politicians they disagree with for their conservative readers. And so the list goes on because those who are committed to and invested in the mission of public libraries understand that collection development is not about their personal feelings — it’s about serving their community as a whole.

This is why I am so concerned about the MOA that would form a Board of Trustees from appointees selected by the Board of Supervisors. I feel such a plan would put us genuinely at risk of citizens — like those in Clean-Up Samuels — who are extremely motivated by their own personal beliefs and agenda to make decisions for the rest of the community. While I understand that there are those who do not approve of LGBTQ+ families or children, that should not give them the authority to erase all representation of those families from a library collection that serves those very families or to declare their very existence “sexually explicit.”

I am asking, as someone who loves this community and all those in our community, and not just those who I agree with, to please fund the Samuels Public Library and not approve any MOA that would form a Board of Trustees of citizens who would be personally motivated to impose their beliefs on the development of the library’s collection.

Please remember that we are a community of many and deserve to be represented as such in our public institutions – institutions that belong to all of us.

Kerry Kilpatrick
Front Royal

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