SB 13 was passed by Texas lawmakers during this year's regular legislative session and became law Sept. 1. It aims to give parents and school boards more oversight over school library books, as previously reported by Community Impact.
What you need to know
Trustees are now required to approve any new book purchases or donations before they go into the district’s collection, according to SB 13, Chief Academic Officer Lani Norman said.
“Our librarians used to be the sole person that would review the books before they went into our libraries—now the school board must approve any new book purchases or donations and, in addition, we must offer opportunities for our community to view the list and provide feedback as well,” Norman said.
The intent of the new policy is to provide an opportunity for feedback before a book is purchased or donated to NBISD’s distribution collection. All librarians will continue to follow a standardized Book Selection Guide—which ensures consistency, transparency and alignment with district expectations and board policy, according to board documents.
How it works
The board will review book selections from a shared spreadsheet and submit any questions through a Google Form at least four days before taking action at the following board meeting. This process will take place during the October, February and June board meetings with spreadsheets available for review the month prior, board documents state.
What the board is saying
Trustee Kim Goodwin said she has faith in the board to determine what is and is not appropriate.
“I think my headliner is—we have to get this right. We have to get this right for the children, for the community and for the parents,” Goodwin said.
Superintendent Laurelyn Arterbury said the district was fortunate to have professional librarians with masters degrees and library information services at each campus.
“Sadly, there probably were districts across the state where transparency wasn’t key. I can tell you that that’s not the way we operate in New Braunfels ISD and this board operates with complete transparency with everything we do, not just library books. So I’m confident with the process we have,” Arterbury said.
Before you go
Arterbury also emphasized that everything is publicly accessible.
“We’re not hiding anything,” Arterbury said. “I trust our librarians to make recommendations that are appropriate based on community values and what we know about this school district and it may look different than it does in other school districts but our librarians know our students, they know our community.”
There are two ways a parent can flag what they want their child to read or not to read. Parents can go to the district's library services website and type in any book and flag it for their child to prevent them from checking that book out.
"Another way is to call the school librarian for their child and they can be very descriptive and very detailed on what they do not want their child to read ... and every time a child goes to check out a book it pops up as a note to the librarian that they can't check this book out," Norman said.
Learn more about NBISD’s library services at www.nbisd.org/departments/library-services.
