[WEB4LIB] Re: Censorware in Public Libraries

[Dan Lester]

Thursday, March 21, 2002, 5:38:02 PM, you wrote:

JC> For days one of our students at a branch campus could
JC> not access our subscription databases from his home in another town.  I
JC> tried everything I could think of with him clear down to trying to help w/
JC> his Windoze networking config.  We use EZProxy to authenticate users to
JC> our databases. Oh, and I believe he had either DSL or cable modem access
JC> to the 'Net via his ISP.

We've experienced the same thing.  Several of our patrons have an ISP
(whose name I've forgotten) that is sponsored by The Church of Jesus
Christ (of Latter Day Saints)  (i.e. "Mormon").  That ISP has a
default of filtering in some sort of "family friendly" way.  After a
patron being able to do some database searches, but not others, we finally
figured out that the problem was the filter software.  There was an
option to turn it off, and once the patrons do so, they could do their
searches for their criminology and sociology and psychology classes.

In addition to this one, there are many others around the country that
provide such services.  I certainly have no problem with people
choosing to patronize such a service, but if the service doesn't have
an unfiltered option, they'll not be able to do many searches that
would be necessary for some college classes.

cheers

dan

-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.gailndan.com  Stop Global Whining!