Vandegrift High School’s library in Austin, Texas has been dealing with book banning and censorship.
Credit: Montinique Monroe / The Washington Post

Republican lawmakers across the country are proposing legislation that would target online library databases and library management technology — tools built by a half-dozen large companies that catalogue millions of books, journals and articles that students peruse for assignments.

These bills — already enacted in Utah and Tennessee, on the verge of becoming law in Oklahoma, and proposed in at least six other states — are broadly similar. They require databases to remove and block student access to material that is obscene, pornographic, sexually exploitative of children or “harmful to minors” — designations that opponents say could encompass a wide range of texts. Some laws, such as a bill advanced in Nebraska, also require that parents be able to view all content their children can view online.

So far, database companies — such as ProQuest, Gale, EBSCO Information Services and Follett School Solutions — […]

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