Codeigniter's `where` and `or_where`

You can modify just the two lines:

->where('(library.available_until >=', date("Y-m-d H:i:s"), FALSE)
->or_where("library.available_until = '00-00-00 00:00:00')", NULL, FALSE)

EDIT:

Omitting the FALSE parameter would have placed the backticks before the brackets and make them a part of the table name/value, making the query unusable.

The NULL parameter is there just because the function requires the second parameter to be a value, and since we don't have one, we send NULL.

You may group your library.available_until wheres area by grouping method of Codeigniter for without disable escaping where clauses.

$this->db
    ->select('*')
    ->from('library')
    ->where('library.rating >=', $form['slider'])
    ->where('library.votes >=', '1000')
    ->where('library.language !=', 'German')
    ->group_start() //this will start grouping
    ->where('library.available_until >=', date("Y-m-d H:i:s"))
    ->or_where('library.available_until =', "00-00-00 00:00:00")
    ->group_end() //this will end grouping
    ->where('library.release_year >=', $year_start)
    ->where('library.release_year <=', $year_end)
    ->join('rating_repo', 'library.id = rating_repo.id')

Reference: https://www.codeigniter.com/userguide3/database/query_builder.html#query-grouping

You can change your code to this:

$where_au = "(library.available_until >= '{date('Y-m-d H:i:s)}' OR library.available_until = '00-00-00 00:00:00')";
$this->db
    ->select('*')
    ->from('library')
    ->where('library.rating >=', $form['slider'])
    ->where('library.votes >=', '1000')
    ->where('library.language !=', 'German')
    ->where($where_au)
    ->where('library.release_year >=', $year_start)
    ->where('library.release_year <=', $year_end)
    ->join('rating_repo', 'library.id = rating_repo.id');

Tip: to watch the generated query you can use

echo $this->db->last_query(); die();