Palin asked city librarian whether she'd ban books

Anchorage Daily News
September 7, 2008
By Rindi White


WASILLA, Alaska — Back in 1996, when she became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason.



After a wave of public support on Emmons' behalf, Palin relented and let her keep her job.

It all happened 12 years ago, and the controversy long ago disappeared. Until last week. Under intense national scrutiny, the issue has returned to dog Palin.

But did Palin actually ban books at the Wasilla Public Library?

In December 1996, Emmons told her hometown newspaper, the Frontiersman, that Palin three times asked her—starting before she was sworn in—about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose.

Emmons told the Frontiersman she flatly refused to consider censorship. Emmons, now Mary Ellen Baker, is on vacation from her current job in Fairbanks and did not respond to messages left for her.

When the matter came up for the second time in October 1996, during a City Council meeting, Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla housewife who often attends council meetings, was there.



"Sarah said to Mary Ellen, 'What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?' " Kilkenny said.

"I was shocked. Mary Ellen sat up straight and said something along the line of, 'The books in the Wasilla Library collection were selected on the basis of national selection criteria for libraries of this size, and I would absolutely resist all efforts to ban books.' "

Palin didn't mention specific books at that meeting, Kilkenny said.

At the time Palin called her inquiries rhetorical and simply part of a policy discussion, according to the Frontiersman article.

Were any books banned? June Pinnell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee since 1984, checked her files last week and came up empty-handed.

Pinnell-Stephens also had no record of any phone conversations with Emmons about the issue back then. Emmons was president of the Alaska Library Association at the time. Books may not have been pulled from library shelves, but there were other repercussions for Emmons.

Four days before the exchange at the City Council, Emmons got a letter from Palin asking for her resignation. Similar letters went to Police Chief Irl Stambaugh, public works director Jack Felton and finance director Duane Dvorak. John Cooper, a fifth director, resigned after Palin eliminated his job overseeing the city museum.

Palin told the Anchorage Daily News then that the letters were just a test of loyalty as she took on the mayor's job, which she'd won from three-term mayor John Stein in a hard-fought election. Stein had hired many of the department heads. Both Emmons and Stambaugh had publicly supported him against Palin.

Emmons survived the loyalty test and a second one a few months later. She resigned in August 1999, two months before Palin was voted in for a second mayoral term.