The Jasper Municipal Library Board is warning that provincial legislation could impose additional costs on libraries while paving the road to censorship.

Matthew Cairns, secretary for the Jasper Library Board, said that Bill 28—which the government says will keep children from accessing graphic sexual material—is too broadly written, and was tabled without first consulting local libraries.

“It leads to restricting access to materials, solving a problem that doesn’t actually exist in our experience as the library board,” Cairns said.

Introduced in April and passed on May 13, Bill 28 includes changes to the Libraries Act. Under these new rules, Alberta’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs can appoint inspectors to enter any public library service point and inspect library property that the public can access, use or borrow.

After the inspection, the minister may make any order they consider appropriate. Previously, the Libraries Act only allowed the inspection of board records.

Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams said in an interview that legislation would enable future regulation to prevent children from stumbling upon graphic sexual material. Libraries would be required to keep such material behind the counter.

Williams assured that the government was not removing any material or restricting access to such materials for those over 15 years old or anyone with parental consent. He added how this would be a “small burden” on libraries.

“This is a responsible, proportionate response,” he said. “It’s not unreasonable, unless there are mountains of pornography that I’m not aware of in our public libraries, which I don’t think is there.”

The legislation does not define what qualifies as explicit material, such as whether it covers only graphic novels or if it includes DVDs or graphic text descriptions. Williams said more detailed regulations would come out in the coming months, and the legislation was written in a way that ensured such regulations could be rolled out.

Williams added he was happy to continue engaging with libraries and wanted to ensure the regulations wouldn’t prevent small libraries from functioning.

“However, I don’t think you should require extra funding to make sure pornography isn’t accessed in our library stacks,” he said. “That’s just basic entry stakes, and that’s what I think Albertans and Albertan parents expect.”

Cairns dismissed the idea that children accessing inappropriate material was a common issue at libraries, saying the Jasper Municipal Library has only received two complaints of this nature in nearly two decades. An example of such a request would be moving a book from the children’s section to the young adult section.

Librarians evaluate these requests, and users can fill out a form if they are concerned about material being in the wrong section.

Cairns added how the library didn’t contain pornographic material, although some items such as a Game of Thrones DVD may have sexual content. Should a minor attempt to check out such material, a librarian would intercede and suggest they get permission from their parents.

“That’s the check and balance that exists right now, and it’s been effective, and it’s been working well,” Cairns said.

Cairns argued that until the regulations come out and specified what qualified as graphic sexual material, it was impossible to say what the costs would be to the library.

“Are we talking about two or three graphic novels that are getting put behind a desk, or are we talking about a huge swath of the collection [that] needs to somehow be pulled off and put away somewhere?” he asked. “It’s just very unclear.”

Although the Jasper Municipal Library doesn’t have a self-checkout, Cairns said new rules could remove this option at other libraries, and enforcement could get “really messy” when it comes to e-resources.

The Coalition of Alberta Public Libraries, which has criticized the “unnecessary changes” to the Libraries Act, is now urging the government to meet with libraries to develop regulations that minimize the disruption.

The local board will primarily advocate through the coalition and has also sent letters to municipal council, local MLA Martin Long and Minister Williams.

Cairns encouraged people to advocate for libraries either through the coalition or sending their own letters. He emphasized the need for this power to stay in the hands of local experts who interact with families every day.

“It is hard to piece together what is appropriate and not … when, fundamentally, we believe in intellectual freedom,” he said. “We believe in access to ideas that might be uncomfortable for some people, but are not necessarily inappropriate or wrong to be curious about.”

Peter Shokeir, Local Journalism Initiative // info@thejasperlocal.com