Benton Library: End the Threat to Innocence
EXPOSING BOB HERZFELD MEMORIAL LIBRARY'S OBSCENE BOOKS FOR KIDS AND TEENS
Feb 1, 2025
WARNING:
EXPLICIT CONTENT
This post features pictures, taken by the author, of books in the children’s and teens sections of the Bob Herzfeld Memorial Library in Benton, Arkansas. The images below include graphic illustrations of nude minors and depictions of sex. If you wish to avoid this content, please do not scroll further.
The pictures in this post were taken throughout the past year, from January 2024–January 2025.
Before sharing what I found, I want to explain one of the major challenges taxpayers face when trying to tackle this issue. For over a year, concerned residents of Saline County have petitioned local and state government, as well as library staff, to implement one of the following changes:
- Relocate vulgar material to sections designated for adults;
- Move these materials to a secure area, inaccessible to minors, until a parent or guardian signs a consent form granting their child or ward access;
- Or, label the material accordingly, giving families the opportunity to avoid it if they wish to do so.
As of January 6th, no changes had been made, and every book listed below was still shelved in areas specifically intended for minors.
When approached with complaints regarding inappropriate content for minors, county officials and library staff repeatedly guide Saline County taxpayers to follow the formal Reconsideration of Materials Policy. The policy requires a meeting with the library director, and concerns regarding the material must be submitted in writing twice (before and after the meeting.) Per Saline County Library, an “educated committee” of “content experts” will then be chosen by the director. The truth is, the policy is nothing more than busy work to pacify and stall concerned citizens.
Unfortunately, there is a giant, $100 million, three-letter, tax-exempt problem: The American Library Association (ALA), the self-described “oldest, largest, and most influential library system in the world,” trains the staff and directs policy and management of Arkansas public libraries and those in most American states. The association even “provides confidential legal guidance and support to libraries and library professionals facing censorship”.
As members of the ALA, Arkansas libraries (and the staff who operate them) endorse and adhere to the Library Bill of Rights, a list of “basic policies [that] should guide their services.” This document is embedded in the policies of Saline County Library. Sections III and IV relate to the library’s strict refusal to censor any material whatsoever. Regardless of how many reconsideration forms are submitted, this won’t change. All material is considered appropriate for patrons of all ages. After a particulary contentious April 2023 Quorum Court meeting, Saline County Library made this statement in a post on their website:
“When Act 372 goes into effect, the library will continue the [current material selection criteria] process since the library does not purchase judicially obscene materials.”
The statement illustrates our predicament perfectly. Library staff who purchase books and determine the outcome of reconsideration requests believe there are no obscene materials. Turning in book reports to ALA-trained activists has proven to be an intentional waste of time. The ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom encourages libraries to report reconsideration requests and promises assistance in thwarting any attempts to have material removed, moved, or labeled. These “book challenges,” and the taxpayers who submit them, are viewed as enemies of enlightenment, and the OIF is designed to wage war against them.
While there is no evidence that Saline County tax dollars currently fund our libraries’ ALA memberships, the organization still has deep roots throughout our local libraries. Saline County Library is reported to have not renewed membership in the ALA since 2022. However, many of the libraries’ staff are ALA-trained and hold personal memberships. The ALA provides an immense network of allies who help them keep books like these on the shelves for minors, and is still referenced several times in the official policy of Saline County Libraries. It is time to sever all ties to the American Library Association.
Several states have announced plans to cancel their affiliation with the ALA, including Missouri, Montana, and Texas. Campbell County, Wyoming and Midland County, Texas have already done so. However, the Arkansas Code of Regulations mandates that library directors must have a master’s degree from an ALA-accredited school. I have been told that until this is changed, there isn’t much hope of cutting Saline County’s ties to the ALA. For now, this seems to be a problem that only Arkansas legislators can solve. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit your local libraries, take pictures of what you find there, and share them with your neighbors and state representatives.
(ATTENTION, READERS: This article has been updated to correct an error in the second to last paragraph above. The corrected paragraph is now blue to ensure the correction is easily found. The original text stated, “Saline County taxdollars fund our libraries’ ALA memberships, providing an immense network of allies who help them keep books on the shelves for minors. It is time to sever all times to the American Library Association.”)
(To avoid the graphic images I found in Benton, stop scrolling now.)
1. It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, Gender, and Sexual Health
2. Making a Baby
3. Transphobia: Deal With It and Be a Gender Transcender
4. White Privilege: Deal With It in All Fairness
5. Jack, Not Jackie
6. SEX: An Uncensored Introduction
7. Out!: How to Be Your Authentic Self
8. The V-Word: True Stories about First-Time Sex
Christian homeschool mom of 3,
amateur duck keeper
Excellent article Codie! Well done.
Thank you so much for all the book recommendations! These books are so important.
These books are educational & there is nothing wrong with them. It takes a narrow minded religious bigot to object to them.
Gotta be honest…if my 4 or 7 year old got hold of one of these books, I’d be extremely upset. My 7 year old reads extremely well (so well that I have removed all books with any adult themes from her grasp in our home), but she is absolutely mentally 7 and not mature enough to be exposed to information like this (no 7 year old is mature enough for this type of information). My 4 year old can’t read yet, but I know she’s not ready to see any of those pictures. If these books are in places where innocent youngsters can find, read, or view them, any and all taxpayer funding needs to be immediately removed from that library or school. Anyone who believes that it’s okay for young children to be exposed to these themes should ask themselves why they are so eager to steal the innocence of children who should be thinking of playing on the playground with their peers NOT learning about sexual activity. Let little kids be little kids!
Hey, SJ, here’s the thing! The person looking for these books was not 4 or 7 and found them to make a biased point. They’re likely not on the bottom shelf where your four-year-old would find it – trying to figure out why your four-year-old is wandering around a library alone in the first place. Librarians are trained employees who guide patrons, including children, to ensure they’re getting books within their appropriate age group and reading comprehension level. If you’re worried about your kids getting into any of these books at the library, perhaps you should accompany them and help them choose more appropriate groups rather than buying into nonsense like this article. Hope that helps!
The books listed in the Juvenile Health section, as well as the one found in the kids’ Picture Book section, were found on the lowest shelf. At or below a toddler’s eye level.
Every title accurately labeled what the book was about. If you don’t like a book, simply put, don’t read them. You are the parent. You control what your children access. Your ideals are not my ideals. Raising children is different across beliefs and cultures. I understand you are upset about these books. Simply put, stop going to look at them, then.
Free speech goes both ways.
Let’s be clear: no child is forced to check out a book they don’t want to read. The very idea is absurd. Libraries are temples of choice, not indoctrination camps. If a book about LGBTQ+ identities, race, or mental health stays on the shelf, it’s because a child chooses to reach for it—often out of desperation to understand themselves or a world that’s left them isolated.
For some kids, that book is a lifeline. It’s the difference between suffocating in silence and finding language for their pain. It’s the answer to questions they’ve been told are too “shameful” or “political” to ask at home. And if a child doesn’t feel safe talking to their parents about their identity, struggles, or fears, that failure belongs to the parents, not the library.
The Benton County Library isn’t “grooming” children—it’s doing what parents, schools, and communities have failed to do: meet kids where they are. When you strip shelves of books about queer joy, consent, or systemic racism, you’re not “protecting innocence.” You’re telling marginalized kids their existence is inappropriate. You’re weaponizing ignorance as a moral stance.
What’s truly obscene isn’t a book about gender diversity. It’s the fact that a 13-year-old might rather Google “am I gay?” in secret than risk their parents’ rejection. It’s the reality that suicide rates for LGBTQ+ youth plummet when they have access to affirming resources. Libraries save lives. Censorship kills.
To the adults clutching pearls over “inappropriate” books: Why not ask why your child trusts a librarian more than you? Why not interrogate why your love feels conditional? Why not fight to earn their confidence instead of blaming a system that dares to care when you won’t?
These books exist because kids are already living these realities—often in silence, often in shame. The Benton County Library isn’t creating “problems”; it’s offering solutions. It’s saying, “You’re not alone. Your questions matter. You deserve answers.”
Burn the books, and you burn bridges to empathy. Close the shelves, and you lock away hope. This isn’t about protecting children—it’s about controlling narratives. And I, for one, will fight like hell to keep these doors open.