APLS board members heard from speakers during the board meeting Thursday, March 20, 2025 who expressed concerns over claims that their local libraries have books with sexually explicit content in the children’s section. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama Public Library Service terminated Nancy Pack as its executive director during the closing moments of the board meeting Thursday and slashed funding to a library in Fairhope.
Both moves stemmed from new restrictive policies on materials available in libraries that supporters said would control sexually explicit material and opponents said were aimed at removing books with LGBTQ+ characters or themes.
Board member Amy Minton made a motion to have Pack terminated at the meeting, with all members voting in favor of the motion except Ronald A. Snider who voted no.
“After this thing at the board meeting today, and after all the things that they wanted to do, it just pointed out how much I do not want to work for this board and support their ideology of what public libraries in Alabama should be,” Pack said in an interview following the meeting.
Prior to voting to terminate Pack, Chair John Wahl, who is also the chair of the Alabama Republican Party, told the board that Pack submitted her letter of resignation effective September. Soon afterward, however, Minton, who filed challenges to books in Etowah County before joining the board, made it clear she wanted Pack removed immediately and requested that other members of the board support her when she made her motion to terminate her.
“This is not personal,” Minton said. “I want to thank Dr. Pack for her service to the APLS organization. I appreciate that she recognizes the need for her resignation. However, I believe that APLS needs new leadership and direction.”
Wahl said the board felt Pack disagreed with the new restrictions on materials, and claimed that the director and the board had clashed.
“I know that I have heard from multiple board members in the last six months who felt they were not treated with respect, that they were treated negatively, and their positions were not respected,” Wahl said. Wahl did not cite any specific examples of such behavior.
Pack asked the board to give her a couple of weeks to collect her belongings from her office before she left. However, Wahl in consultation with general counsel for APLS denied Pack’s request.
She then proceeded to her office to gather a few belongings before leaving the premises.
“This is an awfully dark day for Alabama libraries and the people of Alabama,” Snider said. “Dr. Pack is being terminated, not because of her performance because over her tenure state aid for local libraries has increased 60%. She is being terminated because of unfounded attacks by extremists, including on this board, because she is not sufficiently supporting censorship.”
Board members also approved another motion from Minton to eliminate state aid for the library in Fairhope after individuals during the public hearing told members that staff had not removed library materials from the children’s section after parents requested they be moved to the children’s section.
Parents also said that the board allegedly would not review library materials again after they had already reviewed them at the requests of parents.
The allegations made by the speakers at the APLS meeting could not be immediately confirmed. A message seeking comment was left with the Fairhope Public Library on Thursday.
This is a developing story with more to come.