Twenty-three items—mostly routine business—were part of the agenda of the Llano County Commissioners Court meeting on March 10; but only one issue, library reaccreditation, prompted residents to stand up and comment.
“I’m pleased to see that the county is finally ready to turn the page on the approach it has taken to library management over the past four years,” said Leila Green Little during the public participation portion of the meeting. Little is one of seven local library patrons who filed a federal lawsuit against Llano County almost three years ago in U.S. District Court in Austin. The lawsuit is ongoing. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and these have been two small but important steps in the right direction.”
Little was referring to the push for reaccreditation and a settlement in the works regarding a Llano County librarian who was fired after resisting the book removals that occurred in 2021.
“The county’s residents deserve accountability and answers to questions such as why our accreditation was lost, breaking a 50-year tradition, and why 2025 now is the year to begin again ... I hope that you’ll consider increasing operating hours, reinstating weekend service and purchasing new books as next steps,” Little said.
Over the course of just over six minutes, Little and two other people argued for the reinstatement of the accreditation that the county allowed to lapse in 2023.
Lisa Miller urged the commissioners to vote in favor, which they later did.
“It’s a straightforward step that will restore valuable resources to our county,” she said. “Simply completing the report allows us to order free summer reading materials and participate in continuing education for the library staff. We’ve lost access to critical programs and funding opportunities and services that directly benefit our residents ... You can put the library back on track to serve our community at its full potential.”
REACCREDITATION
The county’s library system has not been accredited since Aug. 30, 2023. It had been accredited for more than 50 years prior to that time, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in a Llano News story last year.
The purpose of Agenda Item No. 20 was to allow Llano County Library Director Amber Milum to apply for reaccreditation in the Texas State Library System by submitting a Texas Public Libraries Annual Report for Local Fiscal Year 2023-24. (Milum is one of 10 individual defendants in the Little v. Llano County lawsuit.)
“We had not purchased anything and that, to me was a big number that we weren’t going to have,” said Milum during her presentation on March 10. “Last year, we were purchasing our CloudLibrary. We spent $15,158 (on e-books).”
Milum said that libraries have to meet certain requirements in order to be state-accredited, including purchasing library materials and having programs for the public.
“Since we weren’t accredited last year, we’re starting fresh,” she said. “We’ll just go by our numbers. Then, next year, we’ll have to do better each year ... We don’t have new (print) books but we’ve upped our programs.”
Milum said that a total of 41,541 patrons visited the library system in fiscal year 2023-24 and that 5,321 people attended 517 programs (including 194 early childhood-age programs, 35 school-age and 288 adult) at the three branches.
“That isn’t counting our outreach in which a Llano (branch) staff member goes to the Head Starts and Alphabet Alley (Day Care in Llano) to read books to those children and check books out to them,” Milum said. “The kids also come to the library for story time. We have an art program at the nursing home as well as the library. Our programs are doing really well, especially our family fun activities after school. We average about 40 people for crafts, games and Legos. Everyone is having fun.”
At the end of Milum’s 4-plus minute presentation, Precinct 2 Commissioner Linda Raschke made a motion to submit a 2024 report. Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Don Moss seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
The county now has until the end of April to submit their report to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in order to become accredited for the next fiscal year, which begins Sept. 1.
Milum presented a picture of busy libraries on the upswing. The library numbers improved when comparing the fiscal years of 2023 to 2024. In FY 2023, 515 programs were held that attracted 5,109 people.
However, over the longer term, the numbers have fallen in part because of a battle that erupted in 2021, over 17 controversial books. Most of the books dealt with topics of race and sexuality and were included on the “Krause List.” Books by three other authors also were banned, including Maurice Sendak’s “In the Night Kitchen” and two separate children’s series that have become collectively known as the “Butt and Fart Books.” The book removals spawned the filing of a federal lawsuit on April 25, 2022, by seven patrons who allege violations of their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
“Attendance, programming, circulation, and patron visits all continue to be far below what they were before Amber Milum was appointed library director,” Little said in an email to the News.
Milum was appointed as director in February of 2021.
According to the county’s check-out data that was obtained by Little, the total circulation in fiscal year 2019, for example, was almost 135,000; in fiscal year 2022-23, the number had plummeted to 30,618. The data shows that the total patron visits also dropped over the same period from 109,149, to 33,561.
