Maryland County Reverses English-Only Library Policy

by Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 9/1/2008 9:00:00 AM

Just days after Frederick County, MD, Commissioners agreed to restrict purchases of audio books to those in English, Republican Commissioner Charles Jenkins, the proponent of the new policy, reversed his position last Tuesday, according to the Frederick News Post. He and three other commissioners voted to eliminate the English-only restriction after Democratic Commissioner Kai Hagen asked the board to reconsider the policy, which was opposed by the leaders of Frederick County Public Libraries (FCPL).

The policy, which was to allow only instructional materials in a language other than English to be purchased with the funds, was first approved on August 21. Only three of the five commissioners were there; Hagen voted yes only to preserve the option of revisiting the matter when all five board members were present

Jenkins, according to the Frederick News Post, decided to reverse his position after receiving thoughtful e-mails from county residents. Nonetheless, he said he will continue to look at the language of documents and materials in other county agencies. Library policies are generally decided by an independent Board of Trustees; however, the county government funds 70 percent of the library budget.

Commissioner John L. Thompson Jr. stood by his first decision and voted against the reversal. “Political correctness prevailed over any desire to conserve scarce public resources,” Thompson said, arguing that money should be spent providing materials in the language that will benefit the most people.

FCPL director Darrell Batson said the county spent less than $300 on foreign language audio books last year, a small percentage of the $1.4 million materials budget. According to Batson, even though FCPL’s world languages collection isn’t vast, “…we are always evaluating, always seeing what best meets the overall needs [of our patrons].” The few books not in English that the library system does have are mostly in Spanish. “We’re pleased they reversed the vote,” Batson said. “We’ll continue to provide materials to our patrons as it is needed and wanted.”