Filtering

[Burt, David]

Robert Joyal wrote:

>Comparing the Internet and TV is really, to use a trite expression, like
>comparing apples and oranges. TV is a one-way medium, more analagous to
>print than it is to the Internet.

Well then comparing it to a single book on the shelf is an artichoke.
My point was to find something to compare to sites remoteness, and the
fact that we don't individually select the resources.  In this case, the
Internet, though it's conent is probably closer to a print medium,
access-wise it's much, much closer to a broadcast medium.  Notice also,
that the type of access I'm describing, view a webpage, really isn't
2-way, it's basically one-way.

>The point I'm trying to make is that a librarian builds a collection by
ADDING >resources to it, not by removing or filtering resources from
it.
But  when you implement filtered access to the Internet, it's really a
pretty fine line between adding and subtracting.  What if you implement
text-only access?  Are you filtering out the pictures?  What if you
install a browser, but not a telnet client?  Are you filtering out the
telnetable resources?  See what I mean?

>When a library chooses to make the Internet available, one might say,
>logically, that the entire Internet has been selected for inclusion in
>that library's collection.
This assumes that the Internet is one single thing, like a single book,
which it clearly isn't.   It exists in thousands of locations, has
thousand of different publishers.  It's a bad analogy to imply that a
whole medium is like a single work.  Do you think of selecting the
medium of television, or radio, or magazines?  Of course not.

 >Also, if a library is using Cyber Patrol or some
>such commercial software, it is allowing that software company to impose
>its selection criteria, and all the ulterior motives that may come with
>it, on the library's patrons.

Then so is using an approval plan.  What about buying a full-text
InfoTrac?  Aren't you letting IAC select magazines for you then?

>What if the person looking at porno on the internet is doing so for
>legitimate research?
Ok, so then how come you don't have Hustler in your library, for someone
to do research with?

>Please define the word "appropriate".
See your library's own mission statement and  collection policies.

David