It turned out that many books dealing with conspiracy theory, sexism, historical revisionism were registered in the ebook subscription service for libraries, and it became a problem
Hoopla, a digital media service, has contracts with libraries in the United States and Canada to provide library users with access to ebooks, movies and audiobooks. However, it turned out that in the lineup of e-books handled by Hoopla, innumerable books that promote far-right conspiracy theory, hoaxes about the new coronavirus, LGBTQ + conversion therapy, Holocaust denial theory, etc. are registered, and the library Employees are reportedly seeking operational transparency from Hoopla.
Ebook Services Are Bringing Unhinged Conspiracy Books into Public Libraries
Hoopla is a monthly subscription service that allows you to read all registered ebooks. Hoopla has been introduced in public libraries in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and library users will be able to borrow e-books by using the registered public library card.
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The service provided by Hoopla is relatively cheaper than other ebook services, but because it is a 'subscription of ebooks', it is almost impossible for the library side to choose books to be rented by Hoopla. increase. According to Hoopla CEO Jeff Jankovsky, Hoopla's ebooks are registered from a network of more than 18,000 publishers and are being scrutinized by both humans and machines. And that.
However, in February 2022, a Massachusetts library staff group protested that Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic books were available on Hoopla. In response to this protest, Hoopla has removed the title from its ebooks.
According to the IT news site Motherboard, when searching for 'homosexuality' on Hoopla, many books dealing with conversion therapy claiming that 'homosexuality is treatable' were hit at the top of the search results. It seems that some of the hit books were classified in the 'non-fiction' category.
The image below is the result of a search in the Hoopla database with the keywords 'Abortion' and 'Homosexuality'. The red circles are those that are classified as 'non-fiction' in religion-related vanity presses. Library Futures, a library staff group, is asking Hoopla why these books appear high in search results in public library ebook catalogs.
The following 'A New Nobility Of Blood And Soil' is a white supremacist book, and when the
Furthermore, when searching for 'vaccine' in Hoopla, many books dealing with conspiracy theories about the new coronavirus were displayed.
'It's cheaper to sign up for a subscription plan like Hoopla than to buy one ebook at a time,' said Sara Lambdan, a professor of law at a private university in New York. The library is considered a very important facility for society. But it's not really allocated the right budget. This is an example of information outsourcing driving out reliable sources. '
Most of the library staff interviewed by Motherboard to deal with this issue said they needed to talk to Hoopla rather than censoring the book. Library staff groups check all ebooks because it is too costly to check one by one whether books with content that is not suitable for a public library are registered in a huge amount of ebooks. Instead, he says that ebook lending services such as Hoopla should be more transparent and accountable.
Hoopla told Motherboard that the Holocaust denial books were immediately removed from the platform. 'We are serious about helping libraries provide users with access to a wide range of content and customize the collections that best suit the needs of their communities. We also improve our policies. We are developing more tools to allow the library to choose the titles it will offer to its users. In addition, we have always listened to our library partners to provide better service and We will continue to do so on this important topic. '
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