Fran Millhouser, Past Chair, Fairfax County Public Library Board of Trustees
Our public libraries provide tax-supported services to community members. Operating under a Library Bill of Rights which enshrines an individual’s right to access materials, public libraries strive to offer a wide variety of viewpoints for the interest, information and enlightenment of all users.
One of the main responsibilities of the Fairfax County Public Library Board of Trustees is adopting policies that govern library operations. Guided by the philosophy that every individual is free to choose what to read, policies developed by the board determine how staff members select materials, display them, and handle complaints.
In today’s rapidly changing world some items in the collection may shock some individuals. While everyone is free to decide what they read, they may not make that decision for others. Neither may staff.
As stewards of the public money that funds our operations, FCPL staff members take seriously the responsibility to provide a collection that serves every member of Fairfax County’s diverse population.
From my own days as a children’s librarian, I remember when Nancy Drew mysteries were considered unworthy of the public library. Even though they were popular with children and often requested, one staff member decided they were not literary enough to be purchased. She made that decision unilaterally for all the children and parents using that county library system. Many of us librarians felt that Nancy Drew was fine recreational reading and fought to add them to the collection.
This example from the 1970s seems innocuous today but it illustrates the issues surrounding who judges literary merit and whose stories will be told.
Library board trustees represent the citizens of the county and provide a vital link between the library branches and their communities. Our information is available on the library’s website and we encourage citizens to get in touch.
The author is the immediate past chair of the FCPL Board of Trustees and has served on the board since 2015 when she was appointed by Supervisor Penny Gross as the trustee from Mason District.
In her words: I decided to become a public librarian after serving as an AmeriCorps Vista Volunteer in Florida and seeing the importance of the public library to individuals from low-income communities. I earned my MLS from the University of Maryland in 1975 and have worked in Arlington, Prince William and Fairfax Counties.