Filters, homosexuality, responsibility, and so forth

[KAREN SCHNEIDER]

To prepare for my next column in American Libraries, I have
been testing Internet filters. I've installed (and uninstalled)
Cyberpatrol and Cybersitter; I have my workstation configured
for Bess, a proxy-server, but  didn't quite get around to it,  this
being a busy week.  All three of these products know what's
good for us--in other words, they have proprietary site and
keyword lists that you can't view or edit (one of the issues
addressed by Jerry Kuntz in his list of features in
filteringsoftware).  Most of them block many websites even
vaguely related to gay issues.  And even OCLC isn't safe from
these products.  Let's get very specific and real-life.

Last night, on my way out the door, I decided to do a little bv
(bibliographic verification, for you nonlibrarians) for a
bibliography I'm editing on resources for Christian lesbians.  I
popped into OCLC, yanked up records as quickly as I could (I
had a train to catch), hit the print key a few times, logged out, ran
to the printer, grabbed stuff and ran to the train.   The OCLC
display, I recalled later, had some little glitches, but I was working
very quickly and focusing on getting out of the office in five
minutes.

Once on the train I pulled out my laptop and the OCLC printouts.
The first printout I saw was for OCLC 32273786, a record for 
"Our Tribe," a book by the Rev. Nancy Wilson on her
experiences as a pastor in a LA congregation for the
Metropolitan Community Church (a denomination with special
ministry to gay and lesbian Christians).  I noted that the book had
been cataloged by the Library of Congress, which invariably
means a high-quality record, in my rather primitive cataloging
experience.  But my first reaction was to get annoyed at the
Library of Congress.  They had left the word "queer" out of the
title, and hadn't used any subject words related to homosexuality
(or so it appeared)!  

So the title was:

Our tribe : $b                    folks, God, Jesus, and the Bible / $c
Nancy Wilson.

And there were odd blanks in all four 650 fields; for example,

15 650   0                                         $x Religious aspects $x
Christianity.

16 650   0                                         $x Biblical teaching.

Religious aspects of what?  Biblical teaching about what?

My other records were like this as well--including records NOT
cataloged by Library of Congress; and of course at this point I
realized I wasn't dealing with a loose-cannon cataloger tweezing
words out of records, but that a filter product I had
tested--probably Bess, since it is sstill installed--was diligently
blocking all words in OCLC records  related to being gay (except
sometimes,  as it turns out, "gay" itself), and a few terms related to
human sexuality.  So OCLC 22608292, one of Bishop Spong's
books, had the following title:

8   245  10  Living in sin?  :  $b a bishop rethinks human                / 
$c John Shelby Spong.

And yet the 650 field was:

13  650   0  Sex $x Religious aspects  $x  Christianity.

Let's see, now.  Terms such as homosexual, queer, and  lesbian
are not ok, and neither is the term sexuality, but the term "sex" is
ok.  In the middle of a record describing a highly academic book
about homosexual Mormons (see OCLC 32895125, Same-sex
dynamics among nineteenth-century Americans : $b a Mormon
example /  $c D. Michael Quinn), we find the maddening line in
the wonderfully rich 505 field: 

-- The earliest community study of               s and                  s in
America : 

The earliest study of WHAT?

I have a number of other examples, but you get the picture.  So
let's get frank.  There has been a lot of talk lately about the
"necessity" of "doing something" about the Internet.  Libraries
are licensing and installing filtering tools, sometimes with little or
no evaluation of the product and how well it fits into their
collection scheme or how poorly it fits into their role as protectors
of intellectual freedom.  Sometimes I get the distinct impression
that they don't WANT to know what they're doing.  Every once
in a while someone will make a vague comment that "gay groups
have complained," but some people I *thought* believed in
human rights and civil rights have touted filtering tools that blindly
block everything related to homosexuality.  Meanwhile, gay
librarians have to tread carefully, because if we talk about this
issue too much we are told that "ALA is not about social issues."  

Word up, boys and girls: I am not a social issue.  Nor am I some
perversion to be hidden from your children.  But I'm aware that
slapping a software filter that makes decisions for you makes it
very easy to look the other way.  

Why not be direct?  If you think homosexuality is such a problem,
fine;  go through your collection and remove every book and
magazine referencing homosexuals, however vaguely.   Warn
patrons, at the door, that gay attire (freedom rings, pink triangle
earrings, Gay Pride Parade Marshall t-shirts, etc.)  is as
unacceptable as bare feet.  But don't install Cyberpatrol, or Bess,
or Cybersitter; use a tool such as Net Nanny or a proxy server
such as Squid that allows you to manually block all the concepts
you don't want in your library.  No Ellen DeGeneres, no
Christian lesbians, no gay Mormons--go in and consciously do this
by hand.  Make the list available to patrons, if they ask (they
should know what you're doing, right?  Don't they butter your
bread?  And besides, you have nothing to hide--right?).

Just, please, don't install tools such as Cyberpatrol, Cybersitter or
Bess and call yourself a librarian.  That's tantamount to the
bookburners in Fahrenheit 451 who called themselves "firemen." 
And don't minimize the impact of blocking all gay-related material;
there are many of us "social issues" out there, and after several
decades of civil rights battles, most of us are not ready to be
blotted off the global information map.  (I would also think there's
some excellent potential for lawsuits on behalf of gay taxpayers.)  
If you're seeking a balance between civil rights and community
pressure, at least use a tool that puts you in the driver's seat.   And
then judiciously pick the terms or sites that  you truly know cross
the boundary of what your library can live with.  Your community
is filled with people who deserve nothing less.

Karen G. Schneider
Director, US EPA Region 2 Library
schneider.karen at epamail.epa.gov
http://www.epa.gov/Region2/library/