Cyber Patrol & Disinformation: was Re: Filtering "education"

[Burt, David]

Carole Leita wrote:

>Speaking of CyberPatrol and disinformation -
>I'm working on the Internet Filter Assessment Project -
>http://www.bluehighways.com/tifap/ - and discovered this morning that Cyber
>Patrol blocks the entire Disinformation site - http://www.disinfo.com/  -
>one of the better useful and contentful research resources on the Internet.
>To quote the UC Berkeley Teaching Library Tutorial on Finding Information
>on the Internet - "a rich, small, hand-picked, reviewed database for social
>issues, politics, cultures, diversity, etc." -
>http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

But this really proves my point.  You've left out the context.  Which
category is this site being blocked under?  If it's "full nudity",
you've got a legit gripe.  If it's "controversial issues", it's a red
herring, since no library would choose to block that category.

Reports about a site being blocked are meaningless unless the specific
filter, date, and specific context are included.  Otherwise, they can
give misleading impressions.


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