Province to introduce new standards for school libraries
By Lethbridge Herald on June 18, 2025.
Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald
The provincial government will be setting over-arching standards for Alberta’s school boards and councils to follow when choosing materials for their libraries.
Minister of Education and Childcare, Demetrios Nicolaides, spoke to media Tuesday about age-appropriate books in school libraries during a virtual roundtable discussion.
Last month, the province announced that multiple books with graphic and explicit sexual content have been found in some school libraries across the province. Nicolaides said school libraries should be a place where kids can go to learn and explore without being exposed to age-inappropriate content.
“While we don’t have any concerns with school libraries having a diversity of material available to students, we are concerned and want to make sure that the material is presented to students in an age-appropriate way.”
He said that some books have caught their attention for extremely graphic images of things such as self-harm, molestation, and other sexual acts.
“And we will be working with our school boards to set some new standards,” said Nicolaides. “Of course, each one of our school boards sets their own policies and make their own decisions related to school library materials. However, government can set some high-level standards that policies must be in compliance with.”
He said it’s difficult to have all school boards on the same page as each has its own standards of what is acceptable in its schools. And he added that while engaging with his youth council, which is a group of 40 students from across the province, it became clear how different standards can be across the province.
“One of them was talking about how, at their school, Harry Potter is not permitted in their school library,” said Nicolaides. “So there is a lot of variances, and we don’t want to interfere with the school boards’ ability to set their own policies, but we want to establish some bases and establish some standards.”
He said the province wants those standards to convey the message that, however school boards develop their policies or choose their school libraries’ materials, at a minimum, they cannot have material that has graphic depictions of sexual acts available for elementary school aged children.
“Our main concern is about age-appropriateness. These can be helpful resources to individuals that have a particular experience, or have particular questions, and I don’t have any concern with any kind of topic or subject being made available in school libraries.”
Nicolaides believes school libraries should have a wide variety of subjects made available, but his main concern is for schools to do it in an age-appropriate way. One of the takeaways from conversations with school boards across the province was a recognition of separating “the what and the how,” he said.
“A lot of the school boards have mentioned to me that they are happy for the government to establish the ‘what,’ which is ensuring that the material is age appropriate, and then we leave it to our school boards to figure out the ‘how.’”
Nicolaides said he’s happy to let school boards figure out ‘the how’ because some schools have their library materials separated in ways that prevent younger students from accessing inappropriate materials.
“Sometimes they have it organized by subject, or by grade, there are different ways, so I am happy to leave it completely in the hands of our school boards to figure out what works best for their schools.”
He added he has full confidence that school boards will follow the guidelines once established, because he knows they want to make sure the materials available in their libraries are age-appropriate.
“If we do hear of a circumstance where a particular school board is refusing to implement the new standards, I will be happy to have a conversation with them,” said Nicolaides. “They have a responsibility to follow directives from the government and from the minister, so we will expect that, but if there is a school board that refuses then we will have to explore what next steps could be taken.”
Nicolaides pointed out that there are 55 schools across the province whose libraries are shared with municipal libraries and are therefore governed under Municipal Affairs and legislation that covers municipal and other public libraries.
“As Minister of Education, I don’t have the authority to provide rules or standards to municipal public libraries,” he said. “That will be something that the Minister of Municipal Affairs will have to look at.”
Examples of books found in Alberta K-12 school libraries that have been identified as inappropriate include a group of graphic novels including “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, “Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel, “Blankets” by Craig Thompson and “Flamer” by Mike Curato.
“With respect of these particular books, I think we have to establish some baseline,” said Nicolaides. “Which I am particularly surprised that we have to establish a baseline and say in that baseline that you cannot have material that contains graphic sexual acts in a setting that underage children can have access to it.”
He added that he assumed schools would make sure that type of material wasn’t available to minor children, but apparently that wasn’t the case and a baseline had to be established.
Nicolaides said he consulted with school boards and the Alberta Libraries Association and has also made attempts to get a stronger perspective from parents, teachers and other interested Albertans, to help inform the new policy. He hopes to have a ministerial order in place bay early July.
School boards would be required to implement the new standards along with publicly available policies by the start of the 2025-26 school year. The new standards will apply to public, separate, francophone, charter and independent schools.
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Demetrius Nicolaides and the UCP mislead Alberans on this particular matter. It’s also because he is facing a recall from his constituents, and the UCP’s well over $600 million Corrupt Care scandal, which the R.C.M.P are now investigating, doesn’t make the UCP look too good.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/conservative-activists-gave-alberta-government-list-of-inappropriate-books-in-school-libraries/
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-auditor-general-argues-governments-questioning-of-mentzelopoulos-could-undermine-his-investigation