Filtering "education"

[Burt, David]

The trouble with "educating the public about filtering" is that such
"education" is usually heavily one-sided and loaded with disinformation.

Library patrons are told whoppers like "all filtering relies on keyword
blocking, therefore, it is unavoidable that most information on breast
cancer will be blocked because it contains the word breast".

The blocking of politically controversial and sex education sites is
taken outrageously out of context, as the anti-filtering crusaders
always somehow manage to forget to mention that these sites are usually
broken down by category, as is CyberPatrol, and that libraries don't
seriously consider blocking those categories.

Dire warnings about a library being sued because it is now a "publisher"
if it blocks, as was CompuServe, are still passed along, despite the
fact that the Cox/Wyden amendment to the Communications Act explicitly
prohibits such liability which might arise from "Good Samaritan
blocking".

I would be very careful about spreading such disinformation to my
patrons.  As people like me get more vocal and better organized, we will
be actively countering the disinformation, and I don't think your
patrons will appreciated being deceived very much.

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