'victory' at Loudoun

[koss at tlc.lib.oh.us]

An interesting story appeared in the Washington Post January 11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/frompost/jan98/loudoun11.htm
on the use of the X-Stop filter at the Loudoun County Library.  
It noted that the filtering has been inconsistant, and has blocked 
some legitimate websites, including safe sex and queer studies.  The
regional sales manager for X-Stop has admitted as much, saying,
"at the start there was a race to see who could block the most smut, because whoever blocked
the most sites would win [business]."  While he said that his company
has "backed off" that philosophy, he admitted that too many sites
were blocked, and that the old policy was a marketing tool.
I have heard it argued that by not filtering, we were abandoning
our collection development duties as librarians.  But it seems 
that with filtering, we are allowing others to take these duties
over with no clear knowledge of their agenda, be it political
or just 'marketing.'  It's an eye-opening story.