children accessing porn; adults turning off filterware

[Burt, David]

 Mark Wilden wrote:

>The marginal cost of allowing access to pornography on the Web is zero.
In fact, >one could argue the very opposite: taking the time to set up
and maintain filters is >money that could be spent elsewhere.

The only reason libraries don't carry everything, including "Hustler" is
because of limited budgets.  Because there is no added cost to each
additional Internet resource, there is no reason not to carry every
resource.
This argument contains three errors.  First, the argument assumes that
use of the Internet is an unlimited resource. Use of the Internet in a
public library is a finite resource.  Just as a library only has so many
books, a library only has so many blocks of Internet time to allocate to
its patrons.  Second, the argument assumes that there is no opportunity
cost to including each additional resource.  The opportunity cost of one
person looking at pornography is that someone else can't do their
homework, or look up a sports statistic.  What librarians need to think
about here is what's an appropriate use of scarce resources.  Third, the
argument ignores the issue of appropriateness.  It is not simply for
economic reasons that libraries do not collect everything.  Public
libraries don't carry Hustler or Deep Throat.  This isn't because of
economics, it's because it isn't considered appropriate.


  ***********************************************************
          David Burt, Information Technology Librarian 
          The Lake Oswego Public Library 
          706 Fourth Street, Lake Oswego, OR 97034
          URL:          http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/library/library.htm
          Phone:     (503) 675-2537 
          Fax:           (503) 635-4171 
          E-mail:      dburt at ci.oswego.or.us