SB536 would abolish the Arkansas State Library and the State Library Board, transferring their authority and functions to the Department of Education. Beyond administrative restructuring, this sweeping bill imposes alarming new restrictions on public libraries that threaten free expression and access to information.
Under SB536, libraries would be required to block anyone age 16 or younger from accessing so-called “age-inappropriate” materials — defined broadly to include any content that references sex — and to exclude any materials considered “harmful to minors.” Libraries that fail to comply would risk losing state funding. These censorship requirements appear to be an attempt to sidestep the court order blocking Act 372, a similar book ban law.
The ACLU of Arkansas opposes SB536 because it is a dangerous effort to politicize Arkansas’s libraries, restrict young people’s access to information, and chill the free exchange of ideas. Libraries must remain places of open inquiry, not tools for ideological control.
