In addition to the school Media Center, OCPS students have access to numerous online library media resources through LaunchPad. These include:

• Beanstack: This tool can be accessed through the student LaunchPad and makes it easy for students to track their independent reading, earning virtual badges along the way. Students can also write book reviews and complete activities to further engage with what they have read.
• Florida Electronic Library (FEL): A service of the Florida Department of State, the Florida Electronic Library offers over 190 million articles, e-books, videos and other resources.
• Follett Destiny: The Follett Destiny App allows students to preview and check out both paper and ebook copies of books available in their school's collections.
• Sora: The Sora App provides access to school, district and public library e-book collections in a cross-platform format, available to view on smartphones, tablets, or computers.
• Virtual Library Card: The Virtual Library Card allows students access e-books and other library resources including language learning and study tools.
• Westar Music: Westar Music is an expansive collection of music and sound effects licensed for student and teacher use to add sound and music to projects, videos and other student products.

Orange County Public Schools uses Follett Destiny's Library Management System to catalog all materials maintained in the school library media center. The Destiny Library Catalog can be accessed by hovering over the Media Center tab on this website and selecting the "Destiny Library Catalog" option from the dropdown menu.

The public has access to search any school's library catalog for available titles. The brief video below demonstrates how to search a school’s library catalog.

Orange County Public Schools follow policy and procedures that provide guidelines for the appropriateness of Library Media Center books and materials. Each media center strives to maintain a wide range of materials in various formats, levels of difficulty, diversity of appeal, representation of different points of view, and selected by professionally trained personnel. If a book or material is challenged as inappropriate by a parent/guardian or resident of the county, the links below assist in requesting a review regarding the appropriateness of the library media center's books or materials.

• Media Center Materials Program, Selection, and Challenges
• Request for Reconsideration form

Submitting a Request for Reconsideration

In the event of a library media concern, parents/guardians or residents of the county may request that the use of the library media be reconsidered following the process outlined below:

1. Parent/guardian or resident completes the Request for Reconsideration form. 
2. Upon completing the form, the parent/guardian or resident submits the form to MaterialObjections@ocps.net.
3. Depending on the objection, either a School or District Literacy Council will respond to the Request for Reconsideration.

Reconsideration Requests
The District must keep a record of all Requests for Reconsideration that highlight the specific objections, the result of the reconsideration request, and the grade level or course for any library media materials that were removed or discontinued.

• View the district’s record of all Reconsideration Requests.

A parent or guardian can limit his or her student's access to print and digital materials in the school or classroom library by completing the Library Access form in Skyward, or by completing a paper form (available upon request) and returning it to the school. Parents and guardians must choose from the following access options for their student:

• Unlimited Library Access: is the default access level and means that the student may have full access to check out grade- and age-appropriate books that are available in their school's library, to include same grade level interlibrary loan, classroom libraries, as well as all digital library materials.
• Limited Library Access: indicates the student may check out materials from the library media center or classroom libraries, but there are specified books the student may not have access to. The student will not have access to identified digital library collections and/or select iPad applications, whichever is applicable. The parent/guardian will specify what titles they do not wish the student to access below and directly provide the list of titles to their school.
• No Library Access: indicates the student is not permitted to access materials in the library media center, classroom libraries, identified digital library collections, and/or select iPad applications, whichever is applicable.

In the event of a material rising to the level of a district-level formal request for reconsideration, the district convenes the District Literacy Council to review the material and render a recommendation as to whether the material shall remain available or be removed from the collection. Members of a District Literacy Council include:

• A school administrator (not from the originating school);
• A parent/legal guardian, who is not a District employee, or resident of the county representing the school grade (not from the originating school);
• An appropriate grade level certified educational media specialist (not from the originating school);
• An appropriate grade level and subject area teacher (not from the originating school); and
• An appropriate grade level Student Services representative.

The opportunity to join the District Literacy Council was promoted to all stakeholders through OCPS communication channels. Randomly selected applicants were notified of their appointment to the District Literacy Council. Members of the District Literacy Council may be called upon in the event of a challenge and must complete an online orientation.

The recommended reading lists below are curated by grade band and are provided by the Florida Association For Media in Education (FAME). District-based certified educational media specialists have reviewed each of the titles on the lists. Students are encouraged to read at least three titles from their grade band's lists. Students can read and log their reading time in Beanstack, our reading tracking tool.

• SSYRA Jr
• SSYRA 3-5
• SSYRA 6-8
• Florida Teens Read
• Orange Blossom Nonfiction

Navigating K-12 public school library media center collection development policies requires an understanding of Florida legislation and OCPS Board Policy IJL. The purpose of this guide is to inform authors and stakeholders of the process to be followed when seeking inclusion of their book in OCPS media center collections, whether traditionally published, self-published, purchased, or donated.

Governed Shelf Space

Public school media center collections are governed by strict Florida Statutes (F.S. 1006.28), which means not every book makes it to the shelf. Materials that do not meet the criteria for inclusion in a school media center contain content which:

• Is pornographic or prohibited under s. 847.012;
• Depicts or describes sexual conduct as defined in s. 847.001(19), unless such material is for a course required by s. 1003.46 or s. 1003.42(2)(o)1.g. or 3., or identified by State Board of Education rule;
• Is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented; or
• Is inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used.

Professional Reviews

One of the biggest hurdles books face in making it into a school media center collection are professional reviews. Florida Statutes state that certified media specialists must consult reputable, professionally recognized reviewing periodicals, including School Library Journal, The Horn Book, BookList, BookList Reader, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly. Professional reviews typically include a summary of the book, its value-add to a collection, and suggested grade and age-level appropriateness.

Curated Collections

Each school’s certified media specialist is responsible for curating their school’s media center collection based on reader interest, support of state academic standards and aligned curriculum, and the academic needs of students and faculty. This means that every OCPS school media center collection is uniquely tailored to its students.

A Shelf-Ready Story

If a book 1) meets the state and local criteria for inclusion in a school media center collection, 2) has a professional review from a professionally recognized reviewing periodical, and 3) meets the interest and academic needs of students, it is closer to being OCPS media center shelf-ready. To be fully OCPS media center shelf-ready, the book must be:

• available for purchase through an approved library media materials vendor
• available in a durable format, such as library binding
• available with cataloging; the book’s digital record can be imported into our library management system
• available with processing; the book arrives shelf-ready with school-specific barcodes, spine labels, and stamping

This information is available as a downloadable PDF for your convenience. 

Orange County Public Schools is excited to partner with the Orange County Library System and all the resources provided through OCLS. Through the Virtual Library Card, OCPS students can access Wi-Fi at any library location, e-books, databases and other library resources. The VLC also makes it really easy for students to get a free full access library card. To find out more please click here:

• OCLS Homepage
• OCLS Virtual Library Card

The State Board of Education expressed concerns about library media materials violating Florida Statute 847.012 and shared the possibility of legal consequences for school districts and personnel. To comply with the directive of the State Board of Education, the School Board voted to remove 17 titles from the district-wide library media center collection. The district did not have 38 other titles about which the State Board of Education and the Commissioner expressed concerns.

View the State Board of Education’s complete list of titles and those removed in OCPS.

In accordance with 1006.28, F.S., "each district school board is responsible for the content of all instructional materials and any other materials used in a classroom, made available in a school or classroom library." Each school's media center page includes a link to the approved classroom library titles available in the school.

Additionally, in accordance with 1006.28, F.S., certified media specialists employed by the district are responsible for reviewing the nearly 500,000 titles in classroom libraries throughout the district to ensure adherence to library media selection criteria.

The spreadsheet linked below identifies titles found to be inappropriate for media center and classroom library collections for all grade levels. Before removing them from circulation, these titles will be read in their entirety to determine their literary value, as a whole, in the context of the Florida Statutes and School Board Policy IJL.

• Classroom Library PreK-12 “Not Approved” Titles - Pending Final Review.