Several years ago, I served as president of our local public library’s board of trustees. In fact, I had that honor for three years, the entirety of my second term on that board. I got on that board by letting the mayor’s office know I was willing to serve. While on that board, it was my privilege to serve with several other Christians. During that time, I learned a lot about libraries and about the impact Christians can have in the public arena.
One thing I learned was that it is really up to the library staff as to what books and other resources the library purchases for its collection. If you have a more conservative director, you will likely get more conservative acquisitions because you probably have more conservative people hired as children and youth librarians, research librarians and others in decision-making positions. Obviously, more liberal directors will result in more liberal hires and more liberal materials made available to the library’s patrons. Of course, having conservatives on the library board can make a real difference, too.
An example of all this happened during my tenure as library board president. The local atheist called me one day and wanted to know when I would make sure that the Christian fiction collection in our library was removed as a special culled out collection and one that had been labeled ...
