County orders library audio books English-only

The Frederick County Commissioners will not pay for audio library books in a language other than English, unless the book is teaching that language.

The new policy was approved Thursday during a routine funding vote and one commissioner is already calling for a reversal.

Three of five commissioners were present during the approval of roughly $411,000 for audio books on CD for fiscal 2009, which began in July.

During the meeting, Republican Commissioner Charles Jenkins said he'd like to put a condition on the spending that would require the library buy books in English.

Commissioner John L. Thompson Jr., also a Republican, agreed with the requirement. Commissioner Kai Hagen, a Democrat who opposes the requirement, decided to go along so he would have standing to revisit it later when all five board members are present.

According to county procedural rules, only those who vote in favor of a measure are able to call for a new vote on it.

Commissioners Jan Gardner and David Gray were not present for the vote.

Library policy is generally decided by an independent Board of Trustees, but county government funds 70 percent of the library budget.

Jenkins said he wants to impose language requirements to prevent taxpayers from bearing the burden of buying books in languages other than English. He made a motion earlier this year that the county adopt English as its official language.

"We adopted a resolution proclaiming that English is the dominant language," Jenkins said. "To me, it still makes sense that we don't use taxpayer dollars buying things in languages other than English."

His in-laws immigrated to Frederick County from Cambodia in the 1970s and did not demand library books in their native language, and he doesn't think today's immigrants should be any different.

He said the commissioners should consider language anytime they are making funding decisions, whether it is for the libraries, Board of Education, Frederick Community College or county agencies.

Darrell Batson, director of Frederick County Public Libraries, said the library has very few books in foreign languages, calling the collection of such books "minuscule" compared to the main collection.

The few that it does have are mostly written in Spanish, he said.

Though the collection in other languages is not significant, he believes the commissioners were tying his hands when it comes to responding to the needs of the community. He is also wondering if the commissioners are going to continue placing restrictions on what books the library can buy.

"Obviously, this is an English speaking county," he said. "That's of course what we stock, that is what meets the needs of our patrons. But we are always evaluating, always seeing what best meets the overall needs."

Hagen is worried about the unintended consequences of a rushed policy choice, and asked whether foreign films would eventually be banned from the library.

"These are decisions that are made by library professionals in a non-political environment and we should not politicize the process," Hagen said. "I trust the staff of the library to continue to make reasonable and responsible purchasing decisions that reflect what they know about the people who use the library."

He asked if the commissioners were going to start approving lists of acceptable books. He also asked if Jenkins would object to books on global warming.

Jenkins has said global warming is a hoax.

Full books in other languages can also be helpful for teaching those languages, even if the book is not specifically designated for teaching, Hagen said.

In that case, Jenkins said, the language learner could go to the bookstore and buy a new book instead of getting one from the library.

Hagen plans to make a motion to revisit the policy sometime in the next month.

(Copyright 2008 by The Frederick News-Post. All rights reserved.)