Like we needed another reason to love libraries: with book bans ramping up in school systems around the country, the Brooklyn Public Library is taking steps to make its massive catalog available to as many young people as possible.
Right now, and for a “limited time,” anyone in the United States between the age of 13 and 21 can apply for a free Brooklyn Public Library eCard, which gives access to 350,000 eBooks, 200,000 audiobooks, and online databases. (Normally, Brooklyn Public Library eCards are only free for people who live and/or work in New York state.)
Meanwhile, anyone who already has a Brooklyn Public Library card can now access a list of “frequently challenged books” online and through Libby, its online book-loan app.
Both efforts are part of Books UnBanned, a larger campaign by the Brooklyn Public Library to challenge book bans and censorship in schools. The library is also offering other resources for anyone facing these issues in their town, including an effort to connect people with the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom in the […]
In the tradition of what America once was and hopefully will remain. Free access to education! I suspect they have some big backers. NY state is an odd mix like much of the rest of the nation. The Hudson River Valley with its mystics, Tibetan monks and activists and the rest which trends Mama. Libraries were my sanctuaries as a child. They represented safety and a place to learn all the mysteries of life, History, science, classic travel books, Shakespeare and Victor Frankl, Nobel Prize winner, author and concentration camp survivor I remember reading about Howard Zinn, the great activist on racism who enouraged his students – all young African women – to knock on the door of the architecturally imposing library in Atlanta. Blacks were forbidden to enter. The female librarians invited them inside. What an extraordinary moment in history. Thank you, Brooklyn!
Whoops.. the AI gremlins changed what would have been MAGA and made it MAMA. Unfortunately, I couldn’t edit it.