North Dakota House Committee Advances Library Content Bill

Alyssa Klossgaard, of Bismarck.  (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

(By: Jeff Beach. North Dakota Monitor) – A North Dakota House committee  gave support to a controversial bill to create restricted areas in public libraries for materials that some might consider obscene.

After listening to three hours of testimony in the morning, the committee voted 12-1 for a do-pass recommendation. Democrat Mary Schneider of Fargo was the only dissenting vote.

Senate Bill 2307 now goes to the House Appropriations Committee.

Some members of the committee expressed dismay with the potential cost of upgrading the online search system of the state’s libraries to comply with the bill.

The fiscal note on the bill estimates the state would need to spend $1.1 million over the next two years and slightly under $1 million in the following biennium. The money would be used to pay a vendor for an age-verification system for ODIN – the Online Dakota Information Network used by libraries.