web censoring in libraries

[pourel at iastate.edu]

Brian hit on the critical point.

He stated that he considered schools, public libraries, children's museums,
etc. to be in loco parentis.  Internet and other censorship systems are
obvious extensions of such a position.

Another position (mine and that of my local public library) is that
libraries are to provide information, not babysitting.  In that case
censorship of web sites, etc. is untenable.

There seems to be no way to bridge the gap but at least it can be defined.

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I. Pour-El						pourel at iastate.edu
Reference and Instructional Services Librarian		515-294-1004
152 Parks Library
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011