Christian County Library

The Christian County Commission voted for two appointees to fill two vacancies on the county library district's Board of Trustees. Due to no applicants, an Ozark resident was chosen to take a spot typically reserved for the Highlandville / Spokane area.

At their May meeting the Library District's board and executive director discussed staffing, onboarding and ongoing policy and bylaw reviews.

The American Library Association and Missouri Library Association say removed ALA documents like the Library Bill of Rights help put the ideals of the First Amendment into practice.

The library’s Board of Trustees has been in the process of revising the district’s policies and bylaws. They considered revisions to the mission statement and guiding principles Tuesday night.

The suit pitted the district and one former trustee against three current trustees in a dispute over accusations of sunshine law violations. In the end no parties admitted liability.

The library district's Board of Trustees met Tuesday night. They weighed several proposals and reviewed and discussed potential changes to the library's policies and bylaws.

A statement from the president of the district's board of trustees did not include details about the firing. Pegram was the district's second interim director since their previous director resigned in December 2024. The board recently announced a new hire that will fill the director role in July.

The board’s treasurer and the library’s interim director disagreed on issues of oversight and overstepping responsibilities. The board president named a new executive director who is expected to start this summer, and the board notified the public of an upcoming opening for a trustee representing eastern Christian County.

After receiving the legal memo in April, the board agreed during a public meeting that they no longer consider labeling and sequestering books as a means of addressing community concerns.

The library district has faced a variety of calls to label and / or sequester books containing LGBTQ+ and what some consider sexually explicit material. At times suggestions have also been made to label "CRT".