Electronic Brown Wrappers

[Burt, David]

Jacques Presseault

>I beg to differ: Internet access is not so much providing resources
>("like  a public library collection.") as providing access to resources
>over which the library has no control.

>The analogy would be providing a public telephone, teaching new users
>how to dial up, suggesting good numbers and letting them be.

>Personally, I would not like to be required to eavesdrop simply because
>some of them might decide to use it to access adult or other services.
>As long as they conduct their business in a non disruptive manner, the
>use they put it to is their choice and their responsibility.

This is another variation of "Internet is a service" kind of arguments.
The problem with these arguments is that libraries freely make all kinds
of modifications to services to make them more in keeping with their
missions.

It's also quite illustrative that this particular analogy, like most of
the analogs to unrestricted public Internet access, leads to a
hypothetical situation which does not exist.  That should tell you
something.

But let's just assume for the sake of argument that a library did in
fact have a bank of telephones for the public to use, with no
restrictions on normal cost phone calls.  Then suppose said library
decided that the phone users were using the phones for too many
frivolous calls, and decided to limit the usage to a pre-selected list
of phone numbers, say of other local libraries.  Hey, *I've actually
seen this done*, as probably have most others.  No one complained that
it was censorship.

Another "service" analogy is also helpful.  When I attended library
school at the University of Washington, the undergraduate library had a
bank of TV viewing booths. But their access was restricted to only CNN,
PBS, and local news.  This seems like a pretty good analog to filtered
Internet access.  No only do I not remember anyone complaining about
"censorship", I don't remember anyone even mentioning that this might
theoretically be censorship.

Clearly, librarians feel comfortable with offering only portions of
access to other media, but not with the Internet.  I've yet to hear a
compelling reason why they shouldn't be allowed to treat the Internet
the same way.

Remember, all that people like me are asking for is the right to choose.
 That's why I get so strident, because there are so many librarians who
say there is no right to choose, that one size of access must fill all
libraries, that public libraries have know become omnibus libraries,
which they never were.

So I will keep on fighting the good fight for libraries' selection
rights.


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