Llano County libraries hope to regain accreditation lost amid lawsuit
Llano County Library System Director Amber Milum gave an annual report to the Llano County Commissioners Court on March 10 and proposed pursuing reaccreditation with the Texas State Library and Archives Commission after it was lost in 2023. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
The Llano County Library System has not been accredited with the state of Texas since August 2023, leaving it cut off from resources, but library leadership is hoping to change that in September when the new fiscal year begins.
The Llano County Commissioners Court on March 10 approved allowing Library System Director Amber Milum to file for reaccreditation with the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The library lost its accreditation in the 2023-24 fiscal year, mainly because it ceased meeting minimum standards for local operating expenditures due to cutbacks made in the wake of a federal lawsuit over alleged censorship in the county’s libraries, which was filed in April 2022.
Milum told DailyTrib.com she hopes a recent $15,158 purchase of the CloudLibrary system, an online database of digital books, and increased patron attendance in the 2024-25 fiscal year over 2022-23 will help the county regain its state accreditation. If the accreditation is approved, it will kick in Sept. 1, the beginning of the 2025-26 fiscal year.
“A lot of accreditation has to do with how many people are coming in, how many books you are purchasing, how many books are on the shelves,” she explained. “If we’re not purchasing anything (books), that’s a big deal (for the state).”
Without its accreditation, the Llano County Library System does not have access to the TexShare database of books, magazines, and academic journals. It also cannot participate in the Interlibrary Loan program, which allows patrons to request materials from other participating libraries, or apply for E-rate discounts or state library grants.
According to Milum, the April 2022 lawsuit was the primary reason the Llano County Commissioners Court and library system stopped the purchase and removal of books. The plaintiffis in the civil suit, a group Llano County residents, alleged that the library system had violated their First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights when it removed 17 books from shelves without due process.
Many of the removed books had racial or LGBTQ+ themes, including “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” and “Being Jazz: My Life as a Transgender Teen.” Others were children’s books, including “Larry the Farting Leprechaun” and “In the Night Kitchen.”
“(The book freeze) has a lot to do with both sides wanting a certain policy, so we are just waiting right now to see what the court decides so we can see what their new rules may be so we can follow them and come up with a policy that helps everybody,” Milum said.
The lawsuit, Little et al. v. Llano County et al., is ongoing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. See the latest DailyTrib.com update on the case and a list of the removed books in this September 2024 story.
“I think there has been a lot of healing,” Milum said. “I just hope that it can come together and everyone can come back to the library and find what they want.
The Llano County Library System has seen a jump in attendance in the past year, but the numbers are still far below its pre-COVID 19 pandemic averages.
According to a report from Milum on library attendance in fiscal year 2023-24, the county’s three facilities—in Llano, Kingsland, and Buchanan Dam—saw 41,541 patrons for the year. That is a 23.77 percent increase from 33,561 patrons in 2022-23.
Both of these numbers fall far short of fiscal year 2017-18, at 106,062 patrons, and 2018-19 at 109,149. The recent numbers are even below the COVID-19 pandemic numbers of 69,441 for 2019-20 and 58,589 for 2020-21.
Milum attributes the low attendance to the controversy surrounding the lawsuit.
“(Patrons) didn’t really know what was on the shelves, they didn’t want their kids to see certain things,” she said. “Now, people are coming in and making their own decisions. It’s just nice that people are starting to come in and kind of look for themselves and choose the books that are appropriate for their family.”
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The statement “…mainly because it ceased meeting minimum standards for local operating expenditures due to cutbacks mad in the wake of a federal lawsuit over alleged censorship…” is incorrect.
Judge Ron Cunningham ordered no new purchases in November of 2021, but the lawsuit was filed in April 2022. The defendants in the lawsuit, including Amber Milum and Judge Cunningham continue to assert that the order followed the lawsuit , but that is not true according to discovery in the case.