Filters/Cybersitter and IRS/AltaVista

[Maxine Feinberg]

On April 25, 1997, Ronnie Morgan wrote:

>For me, the issue was never about the information that is available on
>the net.  The issue is the pornography.  Porn is not information... 

Which brings us back to the previous discussion regarding 
searches that produce unwitting results.

One of the issues we need to address, and, I believe, we have been 
skirting, because it's thorny, is the insidious manipulation of search 
engines by pornographers.  Instead of simply focusing on how to 
parse search requests correctly, or theoretically musing about freedom 
of information, we should be considering the very real prospect of 
delivery of mis- or disinformation.  I agree that porn is not 
information.
  
Unless there's a way of having a library's computers automatically add
a "-sex" (or every conceivable smutty alternatives -- just think of the 
brainstorming sessions!) to every search query a patron might submit
(and I can't think of how this might be accomplished), how do we educate 
users -- particularly young users -- to accomplish searches that will be
productive and not seductive?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maxine M. Feinberg
aka maxif at li.net
Cybrarian wannabe/soontabe
Graduate Assistant and MLS Candidate, St. John's University