Frequently Asked Questions

Sabia is an AI-powered source evaluator, not a search engine. You give it a URL, article title, or source description and it returns a credibility score in 30–60 seconds — breaking down currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose (the CRAAP criteria) with evidence pulled directly from the source.

A search engine finds documents; Sabia teaches students how to judge them. The two tools are complementary: students search first, then evaluate what they find with Sabia before citing it.

Sabia is a structured evaluation tool that uses AI under the hood. Unlike a general-purpose chatbot, it does one job well: it assesses source credibility against transparent criteria and explains its reasoning step by step. The output is a scored breakdown, not a free-form conversation — which makes it safe and predictable to use in a classroom or library setting.

Sabia works alongside your existing collection, instruction program, and library management system. Librarians use it to model source evaluation in lessons; students use it independently during research. Because Sabia shows its reasoning (which criteria passed, which failed, and why), every evaluation becomes a teachable moment rather than just a verdict.

It aligns naturally with AASL Standards for Learners and Common Core ELA research skills, and the multilingual interface (English, Spanish, Portuguese) supports multilingual learners.

A seat is one named user account — a student, teacher, or librarian who logs in and saves evaluations to their personal library. Sabia also allows unlimited anonymous use (no account required), so the seat count affects saved-history and administrative features, not access to the evaluator itself.

The Single-School tier covers one building: up to 500 student and staff seats, admin reporting, priority email support, and a one-hour virtual onboarding session. It's the right starting point for a school librarian who wants to pilot Sabia with one or more grade levels before expanding.

See the Pricing page for current rates or contact us for a quote.

The Multi-School Bundle covers 2–9 buildings under a single purchase order. Each school gets its own admin dashboard, and a district coordinator gets a roll-up view across all buildings. Seats are pooled across schools so you're not penalized if one building uses more than another in a given month.

District-Wide licensing covers all buildings in your district — elementary through high school — with unlimited seats, a dedicated customer success contact, custom onboarding workshops for library staff, and a data processing agreement (DPA) suitable for district-level procurement. Pricing is based on district enrollment; reach out via the contact form for a custom quote.

Yes. The Individual Educator tier is permanently free — no credit card, no time limit. It gives a single educator full access to the evaluator and up to 50 saved evaluations. It's designed so any librarian or teacher can try Sabia before bringing it to their administrator for a school or district purchase.

Sabia does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. Anonymous use of the evaluator requires no account and collects no personally identifiable information. When a school purchases a paid tier and creates student accounts, the school acts as the operator under COPPA — the school's agreement with Sabia constitutes the institutional consent mechanism that COPPA permits for school-context tools.

If you have specific COPPA documentation requirements for your procurement process, contact us and we'll provide the relevant agreements.

Yes. Sabia treats student evaluation data as an education record under FERPA. We do not sell, share, or disclose student data to third parties for advertising or commercial purposes. District-tier customers receive a formal data processing agreement (DPA) that specifies the school's rights as the data controller and Sabia's obligations as a service provider under FERPA.

For anonymous users: only the URL or source text submitted for evaluation and an anonymous session identifier — no name, email, or device fingerprint is stored.

For logged-in students: email address (or school-assigned identifier), the evaluations they save, and the credibility scores returned. Sabia does not collect browsing history, location data, or any data beyond what is necessary to provide the saved-library feature.

Yes. Parents or guardians can request deletion of a student's account and all associated evaluation history by emailing dwilliams@sabialibrarian.com. We process deletion requests within 30 days. Schools with a district DPA also have a contractual deletion mechanism available through their dedicated customer success contact.

Sabia is a standalone web application — it does not currently offer a direct API integration with library management systems (Destiny, Follett, Koha, etc.). Students and staff access Sabia through a web browser at sabialibrarian.com; no software installation or LMS plugin is required. We're actively evaluating integrations with popular LMS platforms (Canvas, Schoology, Google Classroom) for a future release.

Most schools are up and running within one week. The process typically involves: (1) signing the agreement and processing the purchase order, (2) a one-hour virtual orientation for library staff, and (3) distributing login links or roster information for student accounts. District-tier customers may add additional training sessions — typically two to four hours total across multiple buildings.

Yes. Every paid tier includes at least one virtual orientation session — a live walkthrough of the evaluator, the admin dashboard, and suggested lesson integration points. Single-School and Multi-School customers get one session; District customers get a customized training plan. We also provide a printable quick-reference guide and a sample lesson plan aligned to AASL Standards for Learners.

Sabia runs entirely in a modern web browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. No software installation, browser extension, or IT configuration is required. Student Chromebooks, iPads, and library desktop computers all work. A stable internet connection is needed for evaluations (the AI analysis happens in the cloud). There are no on-premises components or firewall rules to configure beyond allowing traffic to sabialibrarian.com.