This post was originally published on here
Pickens Police Chief Randal Beach played guitar for shelter in storm
Pickens Police Chief Randal Beach remembers playing music for folks at a Pickens shelter during the previous weekend’s ice storm in Pickens
The Pickens County Library System has been forced to cancel events after the board changed its book policy.
According to a social media post by the Pickens County Library System, many of the library’s youth programs have been cancelled indefinitely. Its interlibrary loan services have also been suspended.
The cancellations followed the library system’s Board of Trustees’ changes to the Collection Development Policy. This resulted in library staff having to review over 86,000 children’s and teen books to check whether they comply with new standards. Staff time is being reallocated to implement these updates.
The Pickens County Library Board of Trustees unanimously made changes to the policy during a Feb. 12 special-called meeting.
The change comes after the board said it made changes to remain in compliance with South Carolina State Library regulations and continue receiving state funding. The South Carolina State Library requires public libraries to ensure materials in youth and teen sections do not appeal to the “prurient interest” of minors, often interpreted as removing content with sexual descriptions.
This has come under scrutiny as many civil rights organizations cite that the book removals only target those with LGBTQ+ themes. One case is in Greenville, where residents and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against the Greenville County Library System after it removed dozens of books in March 2025.
This cancellation will include the library programs such as:
