News staff writer Temi Fadayomi reported on Saturday that pastors and other community members had begun circulating a petition calling on the Alpena County Library to establish “age-appropriate” standards for the books on its shelves.

Backers of the petition have compiled a list of books available on children’s and young adult shelves at the library that they deem inappropriate.

“Age-appropriate,” of course, lies in the eyes of the beholder, and we encourage more of the community to join the conversation so library officials can better know what the community wants.

The library’s Board of Trustees meets at 4 p.m. on the third Wednesday of every month at the library, 211 N. 1st Ave. in downtown Alpena. Its next meeting happens April 17. Agendas and other information can be found online at alpenalibrary.org/library-board-of-directors.

We encourage every reader — especially those with children who use the library — to attend the next meeting and talk to the library board about what “age-appropriate” means to them.

And we urge the library board to listen. The library is publicly funded through property taxes, and ought to be accountable to the public that pays for its operation.

We will not opine on what “age-appropriate” ought to mean or which titles belong on which shelves. That’s for residents and taxpayers to decide in concert with library officials.

We will say we believe libraries ought to be places where the entire community can find all kinds of voices, including — perhaps especially — voices that challenge us to think beyond our own lines of thinking and voices we wouldn’t normally read.

We hope the community and library leaders keep that in mind as they communicate about any new standards.

But how exactly the library accomplishes that mission ought to be settled by conversations between the library and the community.

So, please, dear readers, join the conversation.

If you want to sign the petition and agree with its backers that the library currently makes inappropriate titles too easily available to children, let the library board know.

If you believe the library has made the right call about where it shelves its books, let the board know that, too.

Only with many voices from the community can the library board truly know what the community wants.