The 89th Texas legislative session has introduced a variety of changes to Texas schools — including their libraries. Authored by Ken Paxton and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 20, Senate bill 13 requires that school boards approve all new books entering a school library. Additionally, it gives the district the option to form a School Library Advisory Council consisting of parents who have the right to veto any new title. The bill also puts parameters around what books librarians can purchase, forbidding them from buying books that the state classifies as “indecent” or “profane.”

Although the Texas legislature enacted SB 13 in all public schools on Sept. 1, districts are choosing to interpret the bill in different ways. As a District of Innovation, Austin ISD can be exempted from one specific part of SB 13: the acquisition process. The board will vote today whether or not to approve this exemption, and if approved, librarians won’t have to wait for the school board to approve each new title they buy. McCallum’s head librarian, Mathew Zuniga, said he hopes the school board votes to approve the exemption.

“That would be the best-case scenario,” Zuniga said. “However, if that does not happen, I do believe that I think most books that librarians are requesting would be approved.”

If the exemption isn’t passed, then Zuniga will have to file any book that isn’t already in an AISD library with the district and wait for the board’s approval before ordering it. This includes different editions of the same book, so even if a book is already in an AISD library, Zuniga would have to order that exact edition to avoid filing the book with the district. This could potentially cause problems because many old editions of books aren’t available for purchase anymore.

“It disincentivizes you to buy books because you are going to have to wait for this whole approval process, which isn’t good,” Zuniga said. “You want to be able to order what you think is best for your library without waiting for or depending on approval.”

Zuniga would have to wait for at least three months to receive new books due to the various steps of the new acquisition process. First, the 100+ librarians in the district must compile a list of the new books they wish to purchase. Then, they have to post that list online for 30 days. During this time period, any community member can petition to remove a book from this list. Then, the school board will vote whether or not to approve this list before librarians can finally order their books. It typically takes four to six weeks for books to arrive after they order them.

Since the school board might not vote to approve the exemption, library coordinator for AISD, Shannon Pearce, created a system for AISD librarians to follow the various steps of the acquisition process in a short amount of time.

“It’s been confusing for the librarians and it has been confusing for us because we’re having to develop this whole new process that we’ve never had before,” Pearce said.

When creating AISD’s policy for SB 13, Pearce tried to strike a balance between following SB 13 while still ensuring that librarians have the freedom to develop their collections.

“Of course, we’re going to follow the law,” Pearce said. “We don’t want to go too far the other way, because other districts are putting in a lot of very restrictive policies. We don’t want to overreact and restrict things more than we’re required to by the law.”

One of the ways that AISD has decided to give librarians more liberty within the bill is by choosing not to establish a School Library Advisory Council, which is a group of parents who can remove any list from the librarians’ book list before sending it to the school board for approval. Pearce advised AISD not to create a SLAC because she feels it gives a few parents the ability to control what every kid in the district reads.

“We absolutely recognize parents’ right to make choices for their own students,” Pearce said. “We always try to be very transparent with parents and guardians, but a SLAC places a very few people in a position of a lot of power over the entire district. A very few parents would be influencing not only the choices for their own students and their students’ school, but for the whole district.”

Senior Talullah McColgin is a prospective member of the Banned Book Club and, as a member of McCallum’s Fine Arts Academy, conveys her political opinions through her artwork. She said she’s glad that AISD has chosen not to establish an SLAC.

“The opinions of that board will definitely influence the content of the libraries and make it very one-sided,” McColgin said. “If it’s up to just a select group of people to review what the masses are reading, I think that can be potentially very dangerous.”

However, one article of SB 13 that AISD has to follow regardless of their policies surrounding the bill or a potential exemption is the collection development section. SB 13 forbids librarians from purchasing books labeled as indecent or profane. The bill defines indecent materials as books with “grossly offensive language” and classifies profane materials as books that “portray sexual or excretory organs or activities in a way that is patently offensive.” Zuniga feels like these restrictions disregard the work that librarians put into developing their collections and ensuring that they are age-appropriate. 

“Librarians are being thoughtful and considering what they’re ordering,” Zuniga said. “Are there books that are inappropriate for the library? Of course there are. But I do not think that librarians are ordering them for their library.”

Although librarians are going to have to make changes regardless, McColgin hopes the board votes to exempt librarians from the acquisition process in SB 13 because she feels that this section of the bill is more impactful on students and librarians than the collection development section.

“We live in a world where there’s inequality and turmoil and guilt and sadness,” McColgin said. “Books are so important to feel all these feelings and learn about all these perspectives. 
And I really hope AISD votes to be exempt from it because I think we should have access to anything we want to read and be able to expand our minds in that way.”