Voters in Iowa community to decide whether to give City Council more control over library books

PELLA, Iowa (AP) — Voters in a small central Iowa city will decide in November whether to give their City Council more say over what books the public library can and can’t offer. The Des Moines Register reported Tuesday that a ballot proposition in Pella asks voters if they support changing the structure of the Pella Public Library Board of Trustees by limiting its authority and giving the City Council more control over library policies and decisions. The effort follows attempts by some community members two years ago to ban or restrict access to Maia Kobabe’s LGBTQ+ memoir “Gender Queer” at the library. The library board eventually voted to keep the book.