What About the Libby App for Local Libraries? UPDATE!

 

From the Christian County Library website

 

By Gretchen Garrity

Libby is a library app that allows public libraries to offer cardholders digital materials like audiobooks, ebooks, magazines and videos. Download the Libby app on your phone or tablet, and voila, a wide world of literature is at your fingertips.

Any Christian County Library cardholder--including children--can download the Libby app. Libby is owned by a company named OverDrive (Steve Potash is the founder and CEO), one of the largest purveyor of ebooks and audiobooks in the business. According to an archived New Yorker article, An App Called Libby and the Surprisingly Big Business of Library E-Books, "It is the company behind the popular app Libby, which, as the Apple App Store puts it, “...lets you log in to your local library to access ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines, all for the reasonable price of free.”

OverDrive also offers Sora, a program geared toward students and available at participating schools.

One of Libby’s recent tweets helps promote the app through a Barbie film meme.

Another tweet explains that library cardholders can “stop paying for books and just download Libby.” But is that true for taxpaying citizens, even if they are cardholders? The axiom ‘There are no free rides’ may apply here, since taxpayers who fund the local public library are paying for the Libby app. For some public libraries, it can be quite an expense.

According to Daniel A. Gross, author of the New Yorker article, “To illustrate the economics of e-book lending, the N.Y.P.L. sent me its January, 2021, figures for “A Promised Land,” the memoir by Barack Obama that had been published a few months earlier by Penguin Random House. At that point, the library system had purchased three hundred and ten perpetual audiobook licenses at ninety-five dollars each, for a total of $29,450, and had bought six hundred and thirty-nine one- and two-year licenses for the e-book, for a total of $22,512. Taken together, these digital rights cost about as much as three thousand copies of the consumer e-book, which sells for about eighteen dollars per copy. As of August, 2021, the library has spent less than ten thousand dollars on two hundred and twenty-six copies of the hardcover edition, which has a list price of forty-five dollars but sells for $23.23 on Amazon.”

Looking at the license cost of $95 each, when a physical copy of the book costs $23 and change, one can see that a significant chunk of the budget for library collections can be spent on ebooks and audiobooks that are free to cardholders, but ultimately paid for by taxpayers.

Recently, OverDrive has been offering a program called OverDrive Max, which offers bundles and other perks for libraries, in order to help libraries with the cost of ebooks. And in June, OverDrive presented the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual meeting a preview of the data it has been assiduously gathering “...to uncover best practices for lending efficiency. These include the utilization of multiple content access models and curation practices and their impact on reader engagement," said Susan Gross Ph.D., OverDrive's lead researcher.

It Gets Much Worse

But the costs associated with the Libby app are not the only issues. Children who have a library card in the Christian County Library system have what is termed an “all access” card. Like adults, minor cardholders have access to all materials in the library. As the library policy manual states, “We support the Library Bill of Rights and the Freedom to Read Statement in providing free and open access to our materials for all age groups. Children are not restricted to particular areas of the Library. Our staff does not monitor the materials that children choose. The responsibility for the reading or viewing choices of children rests entirely with parents or legal guardians. For more information, see Youth and the Library.”

Further, the policy manual states, “The Library cannot overrule the rights and responsibilities of individuals by deciding who does or doesn't have access to Library materials. Decisions about what materials are suitable for particular children should be made by the people who know them best -- their parents or guardians. Updated June 2023”

Under the Circulation Policy in the manual, “Patrons 17 years old or younger will be issued a Youth All-Access Library Card. A parent or guardian must agree to accept financial responsibility for the care and return of Library materials checked out to the child.” Parents must accept financial responsibility for library materials, but the library bears no responsibility of any kind as to what materials a child may view while in the library.

But let’s get back to Libby. What does it mean that a child can download and access the Libby app on their phone? Beautiful card stock advertisements are available at the check-out of the library and its branches, and Libby is advertised on the Christian County Library's website.

From the Christian County Library

A child can download the Libby app on their phone or tablet and then connect with the local library through Missouri Libraries 2 Go. A new world of digital books, magazines and information is opened to them. There are audiobooks, ebooks, magazines, even videos.

And just as sexually explicit and agenda-driven physical books are seeded throughout the children’s and teen sections of the library, so there are audiobook versions, and some ebook versions of the same books. Also many magazines are online for young eyes to see, like Cosmopolitan, a magazine that is known for its sex-driven articles.

And It Keeps Getting Worse

But that’s not all. The Libby app allows users to erase all evidence of their searches, including accessed books, videos, and magazines. Even tags can be erased. This is also true for the online COOLcat.org’s Consortium of Ozarks Libraries Catalog.

Libby offers monthly webinars that help patrons learn their way around the Libby app and all its features. Before June’s “Pride Month,” Libby featured LGBTQ books and materials. They have even promoted a preview for  “LGBTQ+ books for kids: Be In the Know with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.” Here is a 2022 promotion for audiobooks. And here is a promotion for diversity and inclusion indieflixs during this year’s Pride Month.

From OverDrive's website

 As a company OverDrive is typically Woke, aligned with the ALA, and prominently promotes social justice issues on its blog and for book recommendations. The ALA’s “Right to Read” statement is promoted here and here; while Social Emotional Learning is promoted here.

It isn’t only library bookshelves that are presenting a danger to childhood innocence, it is online and digital apps promoted by public libraries, and paid for by taxpayers. Using her minor child's library card, a local mom was able to download the Libby app and access books like "Thirteen Reasons Why," "Spin with Me," "Where the Crawdads Sing," and "Queerly Autistic." Over 43,000 titles were immediately available.

Hillary Clinton popularized the phrase, “It takes a village.” Apparently that is so, until you get to the library. Then parents are on their own, trying to navigate through a minefield of materials that seek to indoctrinate children into gender ideology and early sexualization.

If children under the age of 18 were given library cards that prevented access to view, read, and check out obscene and pornographic materials, one could make the argument that the village library is a safe place for kids. But right now, it’s a jungle out there, both for children and the parents who seek to protect them.

UPDATE: The State of Mississippi has now banned popular library apps for those under age 18! Read about it here. The article, of course, is slanted hard left, but it is heartening to see that citizens and legislators are not going to put up with the continued sexualization of minor children. Also, here's another article that addresses the issues with ebooks in our libraries.