Pull the plug -- libraries aren't common carriers

[Wilfred Drew]

Burt, David wrote:
> 
> Wilfred Drew wrote:
> 
> >I have been watching this whole discussion with great interest and also
> >with disgust.  I see librarians suggesting that we have twowlevels of
> >access to library service.  That makes me sick to my stomache.
> 
> The nausea you're feeling is only cognitive dissonance.  Once you get
> used to the idea of  diversity in library Internet access, it will pass,
> trust me.

It isn't cognitive dissonance.  Its sickeness at and about people who
failed
 to absorb the basic ethos of our profession in the U.S.  That ethos is
equal
 access to information for all.  Where were the people who are
advocating
two tiered service when the rights of our patrons were talked about in
library school?  I am NOT advoacting for pornography.  Frankly I 
find many of the ideas advocated in Washington by the far right much 
more pornographic than people having sex wiht each other or with
animals.
Hunger, abuse of children, denials of basic human rights are by far more
pornogrpahic
yet no one advocates blocking access to official webpages of the
People's Republic 
of China or other such countries.  No, we are much more worried about a 
teenager in the middle of the biggest change in life (puberty) trying to
find information
about sex.  The Internet provides access to all types of information. 
Our job is not to
block access to that information but to teach our users and our children
how to objectively
evaluate that information and how to recognize opinion from fact,
information from misinformation, etc.

Lets get back to our real purpose here and help each other to use this
great new resource called the Internet.


--
Wilfred Drew (Call me "Bill") Systems Librarian (also reference)
SUNY College of Ag. & Tech.;   P.O. Box 902;  Morrisville, NY 13408-0902
E-mail: DREWWE at MORRISVILLE.EDU  Cooltalk:drewwe at 136.204.83.8
powwow:drewwe at wedrew.lib.morrisville.edu
Phone: (315)684-6055 or 684-6060 Fax: (315)684-6115 
New Homepage: http://www.snymor.edu/~drewwe/
Not Just Cows: http://www.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/njc/ 
LibraryLinks: http://www.morrisville.edu/pages/library/
SUNYLA'97: http://www.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/sunyla/sunyla97.htm
--