The 186 Books

An unnamed legislator supplied the list from ratedbooks.org. It rates books from 0 to 5 using the system of the now-defunct booklooks.org, according to the report.

Auditors randomly reordered the 186 titles rated 4 or 5. They checked public library and eBook catalogs at randomly selected secondary schools in seven districts: Davis, Weber, Salt Lake City, Granite, Canyons, Alpine and Washington. They chose 20 books across 42 libraries and added two more because of legislative concern.

On May 8, 2026, Joann Brinton asked about having vendors rate books using the Texas approach she described. Jennie Earl said that would require a legislative request. Meeting captions identify the speakers.

On May 18, 2026, members said a broad library review could not be ready by June or August. Green accepted Earl’s revised motion asking staff for a timeline. It still covered funding, purchases, vendors, librarian qualifications and distributor influence. The committee approved it unanimously.

On June 5, 2026, the committee voted 4–1 to request $60,000 for the review plan, with Reale opposed. Green asked Board leaders to send the timeline to July’s Law and Licensing meeting, seek discretionary funding and bring it to the full Board in August.

On July 14, 2026, the Law and Licensing committee unanimously recommended the 2026 Timeline Policy and $60,000 in discretionary funds to the full Board, with Longacre absent. Staff described it as monitoring by staff and local school systems, rather than an audit.