Filtering Ad Nauseum

Thu Jun 12 09:06:52 EDT 1997

At 11:41 AM 6/11/97 -0700, you wrote:
>We've been all talking about what our community demands, but what most of 
>us mean is what a few people have complained about, or what we are 
>assuming people will complain about based on our own various level of 
>paranoia.
>
>Has anyone out there surveyed their community to find out what they 
>really want in terms of information access?  
>. . . 
>I'd be interested in 
>hearing if anyone out there is basing their assumption on anything but 
>anecdotal information, news reports of dubious value, and their own 
>personal prejudices and biases.

As mentioned before our need for filtering\blocking is somewhat different
from the main thrust of this discussion.  We are not interested in blocking
any site based solely on its subject matter.  Our need is to reserve the
limited number of machines and limited bandwidth available as much as
possible to reference\research activities.  That means blocking use of chat
lines and possibly e-mail due to their primarily personal and recreational
use. Unfortunately - with sites like alamak.com simply refusing to provide
a chat client is no longer sufficient.

Our need to do this is based on complaints from faculty members whose
students have been unable to get on machines to complete class assignments
due to people using chat-lines. Also on complaints from these students.
This has been backed up by observation (no need to peer over shoulders -
patrons are very blatant about violating posted policies - they do it with
staff at next station helping other patrons - many get very confrontational
when asked to release the station for legitimate use) by library staff as
well as review of logs.

I have no doubt that many in our community "really want" to sit and play
Doom all day or chat with '    guy' or whatever --.  Our academic community
- which it is our primary mandate to serve have - has made it clear so far
that they want the library machines available for work related to class
assignments etc.  So I have been asked to help find a technology to help do
this in as non-otherwise-restrictive and non-confrontational manner as
possible.

Paul H. Gray     
Learning Resources Manager   *VOICE (817)515-6623 
TCJC NE LRC                  *FAX (817)515-6275
828 Harwood Road             *E-MAIL phgray at tcjc.cc.tx.us
Hurst, Texas 76054