Filtering discussion.

[Chuck Bearden]

On Wed, 24 Jun 1998, Paul H. Gray wrote:

> I --do-- care and it --is-- my business what the limited resources provided
> by my tax dollars are used for and what type of atmosphere I have to live
> and work in.  As a gentleman I am terribly embarrased and angered when lady
> librarians and patrons are forced to sit at a station assisting a patron or
> trying to study with men and boys on both sides of her oggling material
> that I wouldn't even describe in mixed company.

Paul raises two important issues here that have not been much treated 
in the filtering debates I've observed: the right of those who fund 
public libraries to be concerned about the environment their tax 
dollars help realize; and the possibility that librarians are being 
subjected to sexual harassment when they must work with those who are
displaying sexually explicit material on the screen.  

I'm not suggesting that a decisive argument in favor of Internet 
filtering on all machines arises out of these issues.  In fact, I'm 
a bit hesitant about it because it looks to me like a state intrusion 
into parental responsibility.  But any position on filtering that 
ignores these concerns seems to me incomplete.

And while I'm sure this makes me an anachronism, I'm glad to see 
someone else framing their reactions to pornography in terms of 
gentlemanliness.

Chuck Bearden
Network Services Librarian
Houston Public Library
Houston, TX  77002
713/247-2264 (voice)
713/247-1182 (fax)
cbearden at hpl.lib.tx.us