LA County could make eBooks, including those banned in other jurisdictions, available to all CA

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- It's becoming an issue all over the country: Which books should be on the shelves of school libraries?

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County supervisors moved forward with an effort to make county library eBooks - including publications banned in other jurisdictions -- available to all California teens and residents.

The motion by supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Janice Hahn, which was approved unanimously by the board, cited a recent report from the nonprofit PEN America that found a 28% increase in book bans enacted across the country in the first half of the 2022-23 school year, compared to the previous six months.

"Los Angeles County libraries want to support the full access to each and every book that we know is an important part, especially for young people's developmental education," said Horvath.

PEN America says there were 1,500 decisions to ban books between July 2021 and March 2022.

There were protests earlier this month after the Temecula Valley Unified School District voted to reject a book that contained information about California gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

"Taking away access to books really has been motivated by the culture wars that we've seen and we've seen that our LGBTQ+ communities, communities of color in our history, have been targets of these bans," said Horvath.

There are also concerns about the cost for buying a collection of eBooks. Supervisors hope to use money from Pres. Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan.

"Obviously, we're going to be responsible with the L.A. County budget as it relates to our library and we want to make sure that access is funded and paid for," said Horvath.

The motion instructed county library officials to report back in 30 days with a plan to make digital county library cards available to all residents and teens in California -- with the goal of launching the program during Banned Books Week Oct. 1-7 -- and identifying a funding source for purchasing eBooks, "including commonly banned books."

City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.