At the public libraries in Lafayette Parish books that are about ethnic or social groups are now being removed from the display section.
This decision was made on Thursday, and it is being enforced in all nine branches of the Lafayette Public Library system.
According to Danny Gillane, director of the library, he wanted to remove the books related to any demographics.
“We are not going to display books that single out a portion of the Lafayette population. That is what I told my managers; we are not going to single out portions of the population,” said Danny Gilane.
Although the books will be removed from display sections in all public libraries in the parish, anyone who wants to read one of the selections will still have the option.
“We can show them where the books are shelves, we could show them how to use our catalog to find the books and see how they are shelved and which libraries they are in. But we haven’t taken any books out of the collection,” said Gilane.
Although the book will still be in the different libraries, residents of Lafayette are upset by this decision.
“And so, to just relegate them to the dust stacks in the back of the library that’s just not good enough. That's not what we’ve done in the past and I think that’s not what we should do in the future,” said Lynette Mejia.
