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Plano ISD presents library and media services update with usage data, Sora access and policy questions
Summary
Director Joni Harris told trustees the district’s libraries logged more than 626,000 checkouts last year (plus 43,000 e-audio circulations), taught over 32,000 lessons and logged 276,000 student visits; trustees asked staff to provide de-identified reports on parental use of digital controls and the volume of titles on prohibited lists.
Joni Harris, director of learning and media services, briefed the Plano ISD board on Dec. 9 about district library operations, usage and program priorities.
Harris said last school year users checked out more than 626,000 physical items and there were an additional 43,000 e-book and audiobook circulations. Library staff recorded more than 276,000 independent student visits, delivered over 32,000 lessons and logged 8,700 instructional collaborations with teachers. For the current fall semester (Aug. 12–Oct. 10) she said the system counted more than 176,000 checkouts, 8,200 lessons and 71,000 student visits.
Harris described four pillars of the district library program—literacy champions, instructional partners, information specialists and program administrators—and highlighted recent professional learning that included modeling “responsible use of AI” for librarians. She also noted a vendor platform outage that temporarily limited ebook access; the platform was restored and guidance was sent to parents about permissions.
Trustees raised operational and transparency questions. One trustee asked whether the district can track how parents are using new digital controls or prohibited lists and whether the district could provide de-identified aggregate counts of students or titles affected. Harris and staff responded that the district can track use and agreed to provide a data report that shows counts without identifying families.
Trustees also asked about access to audiobooks: Harris said students can access the district collection through school devices or by installing the Sora app on personal devices and signing in with Plano ISD credentials; instructions are posted on the library services web pages.
Quote: “We can certainly create a report that just by the numbers,” Harris said in response to a trustee request for aggregated, de-identified data on parental controls and title flags.
Provenance: topicintro: {"block_id_start":"SEG 833","block_id_end":"SEG 839","evidence_excerpt":"We will begin with agenda item 9.1, library and media services update...","reason_code":"topicintro"} topicfinish: {"block_id_start":"SEG 1290","block_id_end":"SEG 1290","evidence_excerpt":"We will move on to agenda item 9.2, facility planning update.","reason_code":"topicfinish"}.
