Pull the plug -- libraries aren't common carriers

[Nick Arnett]

At 04:45 PM 3/23/97 -0800, S. M. S. wrote:

>What would be your feelings if instead of a top-down approach (taking ALL of
>the Internet and filtering out), librarians could build from the bottom up
>and only give children access to librarian pre-selected sites?  This would
>include eliminating access to the major search-mechanisms.

This is essentially what I am suggesting is the appropriate path, but your
final point doesn't have to follow.  If one considers rating services to be
collaborative methods of organizing information -- the positive view, rather
than the negative connotations of words like rating, filtering and censoring
-- they are being designed so that search tools can utilize them; our search
tools are being designed to take advantage of them.

To be sure, my words here are self-serving, given that we build search
tools, but my ideas are also born of the work that Verity is doing on
searching and presenting results in the context of organizational schemes.
I'm privileged to be in a place where I can see what's really going to be
possible.  At the same time, our focus on this area is partly a result of
listening to librarians and publishers about the challenges and
opportunities they face.

Nick

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