Hillsborough County recently implemented an e-book program for elementary and middle school students throughout the county. The online library, called “Read on myON,” was funded by the Hillsborough County school district, along with community partners such as the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative. The myON library offers access to over 2,000 e-books that students can read wherever they have Internet access. The goal of the project was to offer students from less-advantaged communities easier access to reading materials. Now, access to myOn has expanded to also include students from all different types of schools in the area. You can read more about this program here.
During an initial pilot version of myON, some parents voiced concerns over the lack of a parental controls option. They were upset about certain books that featured autopsy scenes and witchcraft, among other things. For more about the parents' objections, click here.
In response to those concerns, Capstone Digital, the makers of myON, is investigating the addition of a parental controls option, which would allow parents to delete from their children’s accounts any books that they deem to be inappropriate. The county school district has also taken some of the books that during the pilot version stage were seen by some parents as graphic or inappropriate, and restricted them from being accessed by elementary schoolers. Edit: In a comment to this post, a Capstone Digital senior product manager states that this move was taken in accordance with the school district's challenged books policy.
According to the American Library Association: “Library policies and procedures that effectively deny minors equal and equitable access to all library resources and services available to other users violate the Library Bill of Rights. The American Library Association opposes all attempts to restrict access to library services, materials, and facilities based on the age of library users.” However, the ALA does also state that: “We affirm the responsibility and the right of all parents and guardians to guide their own children's use of the library and its resources and services.” For more from the ALA on this topic, click here.
What do you think? We would like any feedback you may have, about this or other intellectual freedom issues you may see appearing in Florida libraries. Add a comment to this blog post or email Robin Shader, the chair of our Intellectual Freedom committee, at rshader@baycountyfl.gov, or myself at zenglish@evergladesuniversity.edu, and the rest of the committee will discuss your comments over email.
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3 comments:
Thanks for a great article about the read on myON project that Capstone Digital and Hillsborough County are working on together. It is our hope and intent that myON reader will help students grow in their reading ability, and motivate students to read more. Within the article, a new parental controls option is mentioned. This is not available in myON today, though this feature is something that Capstone Digital is investigating. Also, the article mentions that Capstone Digital has blocked books – this is not the case. Using their challenged books policy as a guideline, the Hillsborough County School District decided that elementary school students should not have access to a few titles without the direct approval of parents. Four titles were placed by HCSD into the middle school collection. I hope this clears up any questions you may have about parental controls and blocked books. Sincerely, Gail Lewis (Senior Product Manager, Capstone Digital).
Thanks for your response, Gail. I have edited the blog post to clarify that the parental controls option is only being investigated by Capstone Digital. I had initially written in error that this feature had already been implemented -- my apologies for that. The Tampa Bay Online article linked to in the blog post states that: "In addition, a parental control feature will be added allowing parents to block any books they wish." Also, my initial statement that the titles disapproved of by some parents were "blocked for elementary students" does reflect the language of that same Tampa Bay Online story, which states: "Some books are now blocked for Hillsborough elementary students." However, I have edited to clarify that the county school district was the one restricting the items, and I have also edited the blog post to include mention of the challenged books policy. Thank you again for your feedback. The myON project sounds like a promising and exciting development for libraries and for students in Hillsborough County.
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