#attack on library databases

"There has been a lot of conversation in both our professional networks and in the news about the increase in book challenges and book bans across the United States over the last five years. However, despite the fact that access decisions about print collections also impact digital collections, we found the discussion about censorship in libraries often excluded the complex factors at play in the digital realm, where restricting access is not as straightforward as removing a physical book from the shelf. In investigating two related accusations about “pornography” in library databases administered by EBSCO Industries, Inc.—a library vendor that provides proprietary access to K-12 and higher education research databases and educational materials—it became clear that digital censorship was an underreported but very concerning threat in the library landscape due to the ability of censors to quickly shut down access to large amounts of information for large populations. A common technique used in censoring digital collections is the use of stopwords and filters in library databases. However, a lot is still opaque in how these techniques are applied, making it difficult to understand how much content has been suppressed directly by vendors vs. what has been applied locally by information technology teams based on demands by pressure groups, school boards, and pro-censorship legislation."