Filtering: beyond porn (was:Re: CDA

[Jon Lebkowsky]

At 08:32 PM 6/29/97 -0500, SHERYL DWINELL wrote:
>On Sun, 29 Jun 1997, Jon Lebkowsky wrote:
>> At 05:12 PM 6/29/97 -0700, Kurt W. Wagner wrote:
>
>> >Of course the answer is: "What makes you think we're in the business of
>> >regulating your child's curiosity? It is the parent's role to bring a
>> >child up in the way and with the principles they desire. By the time an
>> >individual is of an age to attend a public university he/she should be at
>> >the point where they can view what they like and have the ability and
>> >opportunity to let their upbringing be their guide. Mom and dad will not
>> >always be there."
>> 
>> It's a relief to hear this kind of stuff from a librarian.
>
>I would like to think that this is the prevalent attitude in academic 
>libraries.  Jon, I think that many (most?) librarians feel 
>like this.  You'll also find that the filtering debate has touched 
>public libraries much more than academic libraries.  Our patrons are 
>adults and we trust them to make their own choices when deciding what to 
>view on the Net. I have yet to hear of any college or university 
>libraries that have installed filters, although they may be out there.

I was rather shocked by the discussion on the FILT4LIB list, the sense that
many librarians want to implement filtering software. I wish I had some
sense of the percentages...I always assumed (especially having, as David
Burt says, "wrapped myself in the ALA position") that librarians were
inherent free speech advocates. If this is not the case, I think we
(activists) should spend more time talking to librarians.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jon Lebkowsky     *     jonl at onr.com     *     www.well.com/~jonl
President, EFF-Austin
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=