MANITOWOC (NBC 26) — This upcoming school year students will be encouraged to get a virtual library card through the public library. Readings will be available to them and many may benefit from them throughout the school year. But in this system, not everything is quite kid friendly.
The system is called Libby and connects students to the Wisconsin Public Library Database. Students with a virtual library card can access the full database, including titles parents may not find appropriate. This does not sit right with Lisa Krueger, a mother of two students.
"Honestly as a parent, I feel right now that it is the best and safest option to not allow them to have access", Krueger says. "It's very disheartening. I would hope that there be more protections."
Currently, parents accept responsibility for getting their child a card and can filter searches to juvenile readings only. But, many parents say their kids can change the settings back. Manitowoc Public Library Executive Director, Karin Adams, says that parental passwords might be the solution, but that would be up to Libby and the public database.
"That is something that they would have to develop in the coding," said Adams. "It's not something that an individual library can do."
Adams argues that although sensitive material exists in the database, there is so much valuable information to be found in the virtual library.
"Everything that is available might not be right for you, your family, or your child", Adams says. "But, of course, there are thousands of things that are."
Going into this school year, Manitowoc School Board President, Stacey Soeldner, says it is very important for parents to make an educated decision on whether or not to get their kids a virtual library card.
"These resources are out there, and with all things, there can be a danger to them", Soeldner said. "We want to make sure that you are going in with your eyes open."
A decision that Lisa Krueger knows will be big for parents and could impact students.
"I'd like to make sure that they'd let everybody know that this is a possibility and to figure out ways to stop this so our kids don't see inappropriate stuff", she said.