Louisiana Public Library Locks Up Videos

Staff -- School Library Journal, 11/1/1998

In Covington, LA, movie buffs are out of luck. Their public library no longer stocks the Academy Award-winning film "My Left Foot". Same goes for "Mississippi Burning". They were among the 354 videos rated R or NC-17 that the board of the St. Tammany Parish Library temporarily banned from all 11 branches in September, reported the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

The board, voting four to two, said that it acted in response to complaints from parents. "It doesn't have anything to do with censorship," Trustee Richard Hart told the Times-Picayune. "But it just doesn't make sense that any 12-year-old can walk into any library in the parish without their parents' consent and check out any R-rated movie."

In late October, a meeting was scheduled to create the library's first collection development policy, covering magazines and books as well as videos.