Some in the southern part of the country look at Seattle as how a state’s population should exist. In Florida and Texas, wars over what should be left out of schools and libraries are front page news. One story is about the banning of books that deals with facts concerning racism and slavery. The Seattle Public Library has a new privately funded program that allows teens from across the country to access books through their online system.
Seattle is only the second library system in the nation to do this. It is being done through the “Books Unbanned” program they launched in response to book bans at schools and libraries in other parts of the country like Florida and Texas. The library was able to do this through private funding.
A solution was brought about allows teens to sign up for a free membership. That membership provides unlimited access to online books and audiobooks. It is a hit with teens. It had only been up a week and had more than 1,500 teens sign up for the program. They checked out 1,200 items from the Seattle Public Library.
“It’s concerning for us as a public library because intellectual freedom and access are really core principles for us,” said Andrew Harbison, the director of Library Programs and Services at the Seattle Public Library. “We want to ensure that there is open and free access to information and ideas.”
