New Filtering Survey

[Karen G. Schneider]

In librarianship--as elsewhere--the quality of service is not measured by
the number of complaints received.

There has yet to be one study involving the impact of filters on the public
library user.  Additionally, we do not know how what complaint mechanisms
were available.  Approaching staff?  Emailing through a website?  And what
other factors were in effect?  Could sites the patron felt should be
accessible be overridden?  Did the patron know that the sites were being
blocked in the first place?  (In at least one case, a library chose to
disable the denial-page feature and bounce the user back to a main page.)
If a patron sees "Cyber Patrol Code 2," does the patron know what this
means?  Finally, most filters keep their site lists proprietary (for valid
business reasons, but they are hidden all the same).  This means a very
important quality-assurance and research tool is unavailable.

Perspicaciously yours,


_____________________________________________________
Karen G. Schneider |  kgs at bluehighways.com
Councilor-at-Large, American Library Association
Internet Filter Assessment Project: http://www.bluehighways.com/tifap/
Author: A Practical Guide to Internet Filters *** Now Available! ***
Neal Schuman, 1997 ISBN 1-55570-322-4 http://www.neal-schuman.com
Information is hard work
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