Rhode Island Bill Would Mandate More School Librarians
Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Book industry coalition opposes federal book ban effort
Nearly 150 book organizations, including everyone from publishers to librarians to booksellers to advocacy groups and more. Signed in opposition to HR 7661Proposed National Book Ban Bill. The statement emphasizes that the bill’s language aims to further harm gay youth (“It confuses obscenity with identity and stigmatizes vulnerable youth, particularly trans children and teens, based on their character”) and that it will drain much-needed funding from already harmed public education institutions.
Bill would mandate more school librarians in Rhode Island
There is a law in Rhode Island now that this will happen Mandate a full-time school librarian For each building with 250 or more students. In buildings with fewer students, half-time librarians will be needed. Bills like this are necessary, especially in a world where there is a literacy crisis. School librarians are a vital part of helping teach young people how to navigate a world of misinformation, artificial intelligence, propaganda, and more. It’s always interesting to hear the low budget figures that haunt lawmakers – it would cost a little over two million dollars to meet the requirements of this bill. This seems to account for the cost of ensuring vital education for youth in public schools. LessEspecially compared to other things that state governments cover.
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Character.AI launches AI-powered ‘Books’ feature that lets users play inside classic literature like ‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘The Great Gatsby’.
On the plus side, it seems to be using characters already in the public domain, as opposed to stealing the authors’ intellectual property. On the other hand, I’m not sure how classic characters would be allowed to play self-insert games.”Making classic literature more accessible and interactive for modern audiences.. By lowering the barrier to entry, the company is betting that interactive storytelling can serve as a gateway to traditional text, especially for younger users accustomed to interactive media. It seems to have an overly cynical view of young people and an overly optimistic view of the value of AI. Likewise, if these books focus on the classics how diverse are they? Do we really want teens interacting with chatbots as a means to “solve” the problem of not reading “traditional” texts? (Also, to bring it back: A school librarian could be a way to expose youth to the classics And Introduce them to more contemporary and diverse classics).
The fight over funding Imagination Library grows
Over the past several years there has been a steady barrage of bad laws and targeted attacks on public libraries and public schools. Another program that is under attack at the state level is one whose benefits are well researched and whose costs are so low that it is clear that efforts to cancel funding are about cruelty rather than budget challenges: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
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