A series of local school-board meetings has once again turned into a public referendum on individual books, as Pine-Richland School District has become the latest futile battlefield in a growing war on literature.
I’ve written before about how wrong-headed such efforts are, but this particular round of censorship reminded me of another fact: Wasting time and resources on removing individual books from school libraries is a pointless effort.
Because there are lots of libraries around. Most of them sit outside school walls. And, with the use of the Libby app, readers — teenage or otherwise — don’t even need to leave home to gain access to important works of fiction and nonfiction.
The Libby app works with library systems nationwide to grant access to e-books, audiobooks and digital magazines through phones, tablets and desktops. Users can virtually “check out” a digital copy of a book and read or listen to it at their leisure; it even integrates with Amazon’s Kindle devices.
I spoke with Hilary Lewis, Coordinator of eResources for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, about the extensive collection on Libby: “Over 183,000 e-books, 100,000 audiobooks as well as a large magazine collection,” she says. More importantly, “anybody in Allegheny County with a library card has access.” That’s not even limited to cards issued by the Carnegie Library system; it’s a countywide policy.
Don’t have a library card? You can pop into any library and get one for free — and if you can’t get there anytime soon but really want to read something through Libby, “You can also register for a card online,” Lewis says. “You can access that through any of the library’s websites.” That virtual card is good for 30 days (at which point users will need to stop by a branch to make it permanent), and can be used to check out books through Libby.
Teens and kids will find curated lists of titles on Libby, as librarians at the Carnegie Library and elsewhere select important and relevant books. You can, of course, also search for the title of your choice. If, say, you were looking for “Angel of Greenwood,” an acclaimed young-adult novel set against the backdrop of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — which has been removed from a certain district’s curriculum — you could find it on Libby.
As of this writing, you’d have to place “Angel of Greenwood” on hold; e-books work like physical copies, Lewis explains, and only so many can be “checked out” at a time. It seems that lots of young folks in Allegheny County are eager to read this one.
Perhaps, while you’re waiting, you’d like to select something from the Carnegie Library curated list of banned books for teens — such as “The Hate U Give,” “Last Night at the Telegraph Club,” “Out of Darkness” or Pittsburgh native Jesse Andrews’ “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.” They’re all available on Libby.
“We believe that public libraries are here to provide access to information and resources that may be difficult to find,” Lewis says, noting that the system’s website has a “Freedom to Read” portal for information and access to challenged and banned books. “Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is an advocate for the freedom to read.”
So, then, anyone looking for “Angel of Greenwood” or “The Hate U Give” can easily access those books, either in physical form through the library system or digitally through an app that can be accessed from home.
Kind of makes it seem like a waste of time to debate whether or not they should be in one school’s library, doesn’t it?
Perhaps, armed with the knowledge that book bans are as futile as they are harmful, school-board members could focus on the fact that teen mental health has been decreasing for more than a decade. Or maybe we could spend some time on the persistent achievement gaps that have lingered since the pandemic. Ambitious, I know, but we could also address the fact that K-12 teachers are consistently underpaid, leading to growing staff shortages.
Any of those seems to me like a better use of a school board’s time than trying to interfere with which books a young person reads — especially when those books are easily and freely accessible elsewhere.
This post was originally published on here
