children accessing porn; adults turning off filterware

[DTROFATTER at aol.com]

I have resisted posting to the list on this subject, because I wish the
thread would just go away, but I can resist no more.  In response to Mr.
Burt's comments:

So why doesn't your local public library provide "Hustler" for your
son?
After all, it's protected by the First Amendment.
As Justice Brennan pointed out in the Pico decision on the removal of
books from a school library, libraries are *not* obligated to acquire
materials for patrons, constitutionally protected or not.  A connection
to the Internet does not mean the library has "acquired the Internet",
so the library is under no constitutional obligations to provide
*anything* on the Internet.

Libraries make decisions regarding collection development for print
materials; many factors are involved in making that decision - I do not need
to list them for this group.
They also make decisions regarding collection development in providing a
library web site.  Those decisions also involve many factors and may be
similar to those used in selecting print materials.  

But in providing access to the Internet, the library is in fact "acquiring
the Internet."  You can choose sites that you believe will be useful,
helpful, interesting to your patrons, but you cannot PREVENT access to
something on the Web for that is not collection development, it is
censorship.  

Debby Trofatter
Reference Librarian
James Blackstone Memorial Library
Branford, CT 06405

"The opinions expressed are strictly my own."