Filters/Cybersitter and IRS/AltaVista

[Laura Quilter]

On Fri, 25 Apr 1997, Maxine Feinberg wrote:

> 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?

This question of education of users, of course, can be separated entirely
from the question of content.  I agree entirely that users ought to be
educated to find what they want and then critically evaluate the materials
they find.  I do, however, hope that users will find research "seductive."

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

Laura M. Quilter   /   lauramd at uic.edu
Electronic Services Librarian
University of Illinois at Chicago
http://www.uic.edu/~lauramd/

"If I can't dance, I don't want to be 
in your revolution."  -- Emma Goldman