The Brooklyn Public Library has been active in opposing book bans and has created, among other things, a program that lets students get a digital library card from anywhere in the US. Kelly Jensen at Book Riot takes a look at that achievement and then looks at the vast storehouse of data BPL has collected in those two years about the students who have used the program.
What circumstances prompted an interest by young people in getting an eCard? When the catalogers read through the initial set of data, they found 12 categories. Some of the data fit more than one category, so some were included in multiple.
In descending order, teens cited the following reasons for requesting an eCard:
- Rural / “small town”
- Religious / conservative community
- Homeschooled / online school
- Low income
- Living abroad / traveling
- Not out / “closeted”
- Harassment / bullying / discrimination
- Military family
- Reservation / US territory resident
- Single parent
- Hospitalized or under other institutional confinement or care
- Unhoused / unstable housing
This data is important because not only does it showcase the importance of access in situations of censorship, but also the ways that public libraries are still inaccessible to many who may live in rural areas or live in communities where those libraries have limited collections or hours. For example, one of the communities with a number of BPL eCard holders in Illinois has a library that is only open five days a week, Monday-Thursday and Saturday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., with an hour between 1 and 2 p.m. where it is closed. It is a rural community and likely has a tiny staff. The data is also a reminder that when a book is removed from shelves, access to that material is not easy for young people. They may not have a school library or a public library to use if a book is removed from one or the other, just as they may not have transportation to get to the library. Teens do not have the cash to purchase materials, were there to be a bookstore in their town or nearby, and most do not have credit cards to purchase the material online if they did have the money.
Additionally, BPL’s card has extended access to those in unstable housing situations, who may move due to travel or work assignments, and those who participate in home or online school.
Then there’s the reality that some teens need digital access to materials—it is crucial, especially for those with disabilities that requires them to use electronic material, including audiobooks. In many libraries, including larger suburban ones, the budget for digital collections can be tight and with a rise in demand for these formats, acquiring more items or expanding that access can be a real challenge. BPL’s card provides a robust collection that may simply not exist for many.
BPL’s card also helps teens who find themselves in the precarious position of either not being out to their families or living in families where their identities are not supported or embraced (not to mention that, especially in smaller towns, familial support might not matter if the community itself is not welcoming). The privacy young people have to peruse and borrow digital material from the BPL collection is crucial. Despite the knee-jerk reaction some “parental rights” activists might have about this, as has been emphasized over the last four years during this current rise in book censorship, none of the materials that are available in public libraries or school libraries are pornographic nor obscene. Instead, BPL’s digital access provides teens the opportunity to read age-appropriate, professionally vetted materials that cover sensitive and deeply personal topics in a safe manner.
Read the full article here. There’s a wealth of data (and charts) as well as personal stories from the students themselves.
