Gale, ProQuest, and EBSCO declined opportunities to comment about whether publishing companies are considering a market adjustment to assist academic librarians in states with anti-CRT and anti-DEI laws in maintaining their ability to provide resources.
“SB 266 banned institutions from using federal, state, or private dollars to promote or provide access to programming for students, and these large databases are going to have those kinds of ideas,” Andrew Gothard, president of the United Faculty of Florida, the higher education branch of the Florida Education Association, told Slate.
“Lots of librarians have wasted a ton of time deleting and cleaning up files in their [Microsoft file-hosting service] OneDrives; removing their names from projects, committees; taking down libguides [resource guides made by librarians] and associated documents related to DEI or anything that is related to diversity and inclusion on any level,” one librarian from a public college told Slate.