June American Librarians

[Burt, David]

Kudos to Brenda Branch, Director of the Austin (TX) Public Library and
Marilyn Gell Mason, director of the Cleveland (OH) Public Library for
their courageous articles in this months American Libraries supporting
filtering.  It is so encouraging to see leaders in our profession
standing up for the right of libraries to choose what type of Internet
access we offer, and they both did it so well.

In her article, "Sex, Kids, and the Public Library",  Marilyn Gell Mason
acknowledges that the filters have many technical problems, and  then
does a superb job of refuting some of the specious philosophical
arguments against filtering.  She correctly asserts that " Whatever the
position of ALA on this subject, there is no question in my mind that
were filtering software available that reliably filtered out the 'adults
only' sites without screening out information on sexually transmitted
diseases and breast cancer, libraries would leap at the chance to
install it".

On selection she says, "Nevertheless, there have always been material
that most libraries don't buy.  (Much of what can be found in an adult
bookstore falls into this category.)  When we make judgments we call it
selection.  When we choose to exclude material we call it censorship.
Evidence suggests that the distinction lacks meaning in an electronic
environment."  She then goes on to compare a library installs a
exclusive filter to one which sets up an inclusive list of permitted
sites.  "Which library is providing access to more information?  The one
that selects or the one that censors?  Is it any less valid to 'select
out' material that it is to 'select in'".  Precisely!

Marilyn next addresses the "economic argument" against filtering: "Many
have argued that selection is cost-driven, that no library can afford to
buy everything and selection policies codify priorities.  Many claim
that there is no marginal cost involved in providing access to
everything on the Internet because once a library is wired there is no
separate charge for each site accessed. Yet consider the following: A
representative of one large urban library that has recently installed
banks of computers privately acknowledges that at any given time as many
as half of the public-access PCs are being used to view pornography.  Is
this the library's purpose in installing the computer system?  Can we
say the access is free?" Yes!

It is so encouraging to see that the arguments in support of Internet
selection choice are now making there way into the main stream of our
professional associations and literature.



  ***********************************************************
          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