ASHLAND — The Ashland Public Library Board of Trustees has moved its regularly scheduled meeting for Thursday to a larger venue to accommodate what is expected to be a significant crowd.
“We greatly appreciate the recent outpouring of interest in library business, and we want to make our meeting as accessible as possible,” said Sandra Hedlund Tunnell, the board’s president.
The meeting will take place at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ashland County Sheriff’s Annex, 1205 East Main St.
Tunnell said it’s important to the board to “allow as many people as possible to hear our meeting in person, while not interfering with the use of the library by its patrons.”
When asked in a separate interview how many people the board expects to show up, Tunnell said didn’t know for sure.
“We had so many people last time — there were people in the hallways,” she said, referencing the board’s July 14 meeting where between 200 and 300 people were in attendance.
The library’s Stockwell Room was packed full, while dozens more lined the hallways outside the room and even outside the library where they waited for the meeting to conclude.
Many people attended the July meeting to urge trustees to remove or relocate books they deem inappropriate for children. Some people have characterized certain books as pornographic in nature because of their depictions of sexual topics, such as puberty, masturbation, pregnancy and sexual orientation.
In June, the board of trustees said it would not remove the five books in question. Tunnell said such action would be censorship.
