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Louise Thomas
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One mother has been opening up about a new law she has noticed in her public library.
Carly Anderson recently posted a video on TikTok talking about a visit to the library with her two daughters, one who is 11 years old and the other a year old. “Kids have lost access to public libraries,” she said at the beginning of the clip.
At the library, her older daughter Scarlett just finished reading The Hobbit and was looking for JRR Tolkien’s follow-up The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which was located in the adult section. However, towards the entrance, there was a large sign that said “Stop.”
“The sign says that if you are under 18, you’re not allowed up there unless you have an unrestricted library card or your parent that is over 18 signs an affidavit for you,” the mother explained.
After handing over her ID to prove that she was over 18 years old, she assumed she would then be allowed to go with her daughter. However, the librarian then stopped her again.
“They said that because I had a baby there (who can’t read), I’m not allowed in the library with her unless she has a library card or I signed an affidavit,” Anderson explained about her one-year-old daughter, Daphne. “So me and Daphne just watched from the edge while Scarlett goes in to find her book. The librarian ended up helping her.”
The mother did clarify that she didn’t blame the librarians for what was going on saying, “They were being so nice and patient... I felt like the librarians are sick of it. They feel so bad turning kids away from going into the library.”
However, her biggest concern was for the children who may need to go into the library without a parent and thus lose access to books they may need.
“My heart broke because what about these kids that aren’t coming in with parents? What about the Matildas out there that literally come to the library to just read, read, and read and then gain superpowers because they’re Matilda?” she asked.
“What about the Hermiones out there that find amazing answers because they go into the Restricted Section of the library?”
The law is House Bill 701, which is an Idaho state law that began on July 1 where parents can sue any public or school library if they believe they are offering “harmful” materials to minors.
“For some libraries, it’s doing something like this: having an unrestricted card, or making sure that a parent, a legal guardian, signs an affidavit,” Anderson explained the law in a follow-up TikTok.
“Even sadder, some of the smaller community libraries have been closed since July 1 because they just don’t have the funding to restructure a library like this, or the funding to get sued every time someone gets offended.”
After posting many people took to the comments section to explain how important public libraries were to them amid the new law.
“When I was a kid, the public library had air-conditioning when our house didn’t. I lived in the library during summer breaks. My heart breaks for this,” one comment read while another agreed, writing, “One of my best friends (who I met in high school) would always tell me about how he would leave his house everyday and go to the library to get away from his abusive home… this is so sad.”
