In order to maintain a collection of relevant, high-interest titles and resources, it seems inevitable that libraries would eventually need ways to expand their digital collections. This can be challenging, especially when it comes to the cost and size of a library’s budget. By utilizing a combination of free collections and paid subscriptions, libraries are able to expand their collections to provide more resources for their patrons. This is a great advantage of free and paid subscriptions, but there are also disadvantages as well. For example, the removal of or exclusion of titles that may be considered inappropriate by the vendor or publisher, creating a censorship issue for the school or district library utilizing that vendor’s platform. This is in direct conflict with the library bill of rights and could create relationship issues between the school/district/library and the students/families that are part of the community.

Another disadvantage is the limitation on licenses and length of time that titles are offered to schools through a subscription. This can be costly for school libraries with a limited annual budget that must be balanced between books and other supplies and library program needs. This is an issue for our library program because we are a college preparatory and IB World School, so being able to access a wide range of quality, relevant materials and resources is critical for our students and staff. When conducting research for a course assessment, having a single user license for a text when there are multiple students who need the text can delay access for other students. The limitation on length of time can also create an issue for our building and students as many courses offered are two year courses and a limitation on access to a resource needed for a research assessment taking place over an extended period of time.

Most recently, when I was preparing to co-teach a lesson with our school librarian on conducting research and using databases for a research essay, we discovered that a high quality database that had previously been provided through our public library partnership was no longer available. This was devastating as our students had frequently used it for research over the last few years. The database is still widely used, however, I will need to evaluate our budget for the next school year to determine if we are able to pay for and continue to justify a subscription to this database that was previously free through our public library partnership.

My building is a 1:1 school serving students in grades 9-12, so all students have a district laptop that is provided to them. Many, but not all, of our students also have smartphones that they have with them during the school day. With the district provided devices, personal devices and smartphones, and our relationship with the public library system, our students are able to access ebooks through Libby (Overdrive), Hoopla, Bookflix, Gale Ebooks, and Project Muse. Our building also has our own collection of ebooks through MackinVia. Through library orientation and regular check-out through ELA classes, I will be able to provide instruction and information on how to access and read ebooks through student’s laptops and the Libby and/or MackinVia app for their smartphones. We also have online tutorial videos that are linked on our district library website for students and parents to view that cover how to access and read ebooks with their district log-in from home.

In the event an ebook was challenged, I think the situation should be further investigated because banning a book, even an ebook from a collection, impacts not just the one or few individuals challenging it. I believe that to ban an ebook, there should be a similar process, but perhaps not identical to that of a physical book. This is because to remove a physical book from the collection, after the proper process has been completed, it is simply removed from the shelf. For an ebook to be removed, this process could prove much more complicated. For example, if the ebook has a license purchased by the library, and therefore it is a part of the library’s collection, removing it would likely be a much easier process than if the book in question was a part of a paid subscription that other schools and districts would also have purchased for their students and staff.