Model "School Library Database Procurement Act" Released
The EveryLibrary Institute has collaborated with Georgetown University Law Center’s Intellectual Property & Information Policy Clinic (“iPIP”) to research and create the "School Library Database Procurement Act", new model legislation to help safeguard state library database contracts and student access to information.
In 2021 and 2022, several state legislatures considered legislation that would curtail or limit access to the core collection and make it difficult or even impossible for state libraries, schools and districts, and vendors to administer these databases. Anti-access special interest groups are focusing on school library databases because they claim that these educational resources contain “harmful materials” such as pornography, obscenity, or content about sex and sexuality. The attacks have escalated from attempts to censor or shut off access to content in local school districts to lawsuits against statewide library consortia to proposing and enacting regressive legislation that over-regulates or curtails access for students and their families.
The model "School Library Database Procurement Act" attempts to address negative legislative efforts and pre-empt litigation by grass-roots activists who claim that libraries and database providers have been intentionally providing children with obscene and pornographic material. The model bill is designed to provide for a fair and honest review process that would allow concerned parents, guardians, and educators to challenge any material in a database perceived to be obscene while allowing database providers an opportunity to demonstrate that the material is not obscene or otherwise cure the potential offense.
Please register at https://www.everylibraryinstitute.org/model_school_database_procurement_act_2023 to receive an overview and informational packet about the model legislation.
About the Collaboration
The EveryLibrary Institute is a national 501c3 non-profit with a mission to support libraries and librarians in the United States and abroad. The Georgetown University Law Center’s Intellectual Property & Information Policy Clinic (“iPIP”) focuses on counseling work--such as strategic advising, policymaking, and impact advocacy--for individuals, non-profits, and other organizations who engage with intellectual property and information policy issues from a public interest perspective.