School library transparency measure advanced

Lawmakers gave first-round approval March 11 to a bill that aims to increase parents’ and guardians’ access to school library materials.

LB390, introduced by Glenvil Sen. Dave Murman, would require school boards to adopt a policy that provides parents, guardians or educational decisionmakers access to school library information.

Under the bill as introduced, a policy must include the creation of an online catalog listing all available books in the district’s library, organized by each school building. The catalog would be accessible to parents, guardians and educational decisionmakers, who could request to be notified — through an application, website or email — when their student checks out a book from the school library. The notification would include the book’s title, author and due date.

An Education Committee amendment, adopted 26-0, would eliminate the requirement for schools to have their library catalogs available online, which Murman said could burden smaller schools.

The purpose of LB390 is not to ban or restrict certain books, Murman said, but to promote transparency for parents, enabling them to make well-informed decisions that they believe are best for their children.

“All this bill asks is to put parents in the driver’s seat so they can have conversations with their children based on their personal family values,” he said.

Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad supported the proposal, saying she views it as an extension of parents’ rights regarding their children’s education, such as allowing parents to opt their children out of certain curricula.

LB390 also aligns with current state law, Conrad said, which grants parents and guardians access to all school files regarding their students.

Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt opposed the bill, saying it’s unnecessary because parents already have the right to inquire about materials their children can access. Additionally, she said, the availability of school library catalogs could empower political “activists” seeking to control the selection of books available in school libraries.

“Schools don’t need more government red tape, more surveillance [or] more politically motivated laws like LB390,” Hunt said. “We need to be focused on real issues that would help students, not manufactured crises that are designed to divide us.”

Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha also opposed the measure, raising concerns that people could access, and attempt to alter, the library catalogs of schools where they do not have students enrolled.

“I’m concerned when you start compiling lists of books across school districts — and across buildings, even — that there is a possibility that someone else will object to the books being in the school that they don’t like, that I might not object to,” Cavanaugh said.

Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh echoed those sentiments and introduced an amendment that would restrict parents’ access to only the library catalog of a school in which their child is enrolled, rather than the entire school district.

After Cavanaugh’s amendment failed on a vote of 12-18, lawmakers advanced LB390 to select file 25-2. Twenty-five votes were needed.