Mrs. Bette Myers
c/o Mr. Marvin Campen
239 Campen Lane
McMinnville, TN 37110

Dear Magness Library Board Member:

We are writing to ask you to reconsider your policy in regard to the acquisition and shelving of religious books at Magness Memorial Library. Specifically, we refer to the policy of deleting, rejecting, and excluding all religious books deemed to be "proselytizing". We feel that this term is too vague and subject to abuse. We are enclosing a copy of a letter sent to Faith Holdredge of the Caney Fork Regional Library, Sparta, Tennessee, which explains our views concerning this matter.

We are asking you to please suspend this practice at Magness Memorial Library until such time as the members of the library board have had time to study this issue and formulate a precise definition of "proselytizing" and to adopt more objective criteria concerning which books are to be excluded. We feel that the reasons for excluding certain religious books should be communicated to the public so that there will be no confusion or misunderstanding in regard to why some religious materials are refused or discarded.

If you are aware of recent events concerning the Chattanooga Public Library, then I am sure that you realize such situations could easily become controversial. We would like to see this avoided in McMinnville and feel that the best way to do so is tto allow the public a greater understanding of and input into the book selection process at Magness Library.

We would appreciate hearing your opinions concerning this matter.

Thank you very much.

Yours,

Walter J. Clark