Access to Online Subscription Content in K12 Schools through the School Library

Among the many resources purchased within school libraries is subscription online content. School librarians purchase this material to support classroom curriculum and student inquiry thus providing reading materials to foster literacy, research skills, and encourage critical thinking. This content, aggregated by vendors who purchase from a wide variety of subscription-based resources such as magazines, journals, video and other media, and primary source depositories, allows students to access material that otherwise might be prohibitively expensive. Educational materials such as these have lately been targeted by politically-motivated parents' rights groups as being harmful to minors. This paper explores how limiting access to these resources affects students' ability to become critical thinkers who can identify perspectives, evaluate sources, and integrate new information into their research. It investigates how limiting access to subscription online content through legislation encourages pre-restriction by vendors and school librarians as a response to these complaints. The authors also cover strategies on how to protect school libraries against these threats.