Re:Librarians Rule! (Score 1)

librarians do rule (:

okay, i may be a bit biased, as i am a professional librarian, and have been for almost five years. this issue of censorship is not a new one in libraryland. we debate it in library school, we celebrate Banned Books Week, and we tout the tenets of the First Amendment with glee.

it's a whole different story, though, when censorship is right in your face. my library (a suburban Detroit public library system) faced the net.censorship issue head on about two years ago. to make a very long story short, one member of our city council made net pr0n her pet issue. she resisted every attempt by library staff to train and educate her about how to use our online resources. she instead focused upon the so-called bad things about the Internet, and wanted to filter ALL Internet access at the library.

after a long drawn out battle between the library staff/library commission and the city council, we came to a compromise. we would install filters on our terminals in the children's areas, but the adult section terminals would remain filter-less. we do not require children to use the children's terminals.

it's important to keep a few things in mind when these kinds of issues come up:

• public libraries and librarians do not have the right to act in loco parentis. this means we cannot be responsible for your children while they are in our buildings.
• if a parent is concerned about what their child may see while using online resources at their public library, the parent needs to come to the library with their child so they can guide their child's use
• no filter is 100%. our terminals have the BESS filter running on them. it's always possible that sites which are truly appropriate to a researcher will be blocked because of filter settings. some buzzwords may automatically exclude documents which could be of relevance.
• as soon as you tell a kid that they can't see something, they'll find a way to do it. i was one of those kids. i found a way to read/see the things i was told to stay away from.
• every community is different. what is important here in the Detroit suburbs may not be of such importance on the other side of the state. one of the most popular uses of our online terminals is for game cheat codes. the BESS terminals won't let kids get to the websites with the PlayStation codes.

it's hard to say with any certainty what is right and what is wrong, and there truly is no absolute right or wrong answer to this issue. every community is unique, as are the library patrons within the community. all we can do, as library users and supporters (and staff) is continue to educate and train the public. instead of focusing on the bad, focus upon the GOOD things that are available online. it's vital that we continue to teach and emphasize the importance of appropriate Internet use, too.

be aware of what is happening in your own community - stop in an visit your public library and see how they're dealing with public access to the internet.

on a parting note, there's an excellent site, Peacefire, http://www.peacefire.org which keeps track of various inetnet censorship issues.

kate