[Publib] Librarians required to provide access to porn? was WIRED...

[K.G. Schneider]

Someone asked me why I hadn't weighed in on this thread yet, and aside from
working a full day and then falling asleep on the couch after baking four
chocolate pecan pies for a church bazaar, I really don't know why I hadn't.
So let me chime in with another perspective.

 

We'd have a lot more book challenges if we went around reading out loud the
spicy parts of the books we buy. (Actually, if you made me listen to Ann
Coulter's claptrap, I'd probably get litigious about that, as well.) In
librarianship we are too often allowing the way we provide technology to set
up a conflict between the right to read and the right to be left alone. We
are quick to tell people to turn off their cell phones (when we really mean
we want them to mute their ringers and take calls outside, but never mind)
but then we make it incredibly easy to set up collisions between people who
object to what other people are viewing. 

 

When I did a lot of consulting on internet censorship in the late 1990s, I
was often called in after this scenario had stirred everyone into a tizzy:
Person calls up sexually explicit image on monitor and walks off. Person B
walks by and is outraged (or, worse, Person B's mother is outraged). I
always pointed out that you have a few good methods to prevent this
scenario. I would add that Person B is entitled to be left alone. 

 

As for little children and the Internet, I've been yelled at for this point
of view (literally, at ALA meetings), and it has resulted in me being
persona non grata in some circles, but I don't have a problem with filtering
the internet for little kids, and I think ALA's position on this issue lost
CIPA for us. Put "children" and "Internet" in the same sentence and I'm
sorry, game over. 

 

Frankly, we could use more window-soaping in society. Let people read what
they want to read, but don't make it easy for them to foist that on others.
It's good strategy and it's humane. You want to read Protocols of Zion or
Ann Coulter or whatever, fine, but please don't make me hear it or see it!

 

Karen G. Schneider

kgs at bluehighways.com 

 

  _____  

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of Patty Wanninger
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 7:02 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Librarians required to provide access to porn? was
WIRED...

 

I know that we are not attorneys on this listserv, and it may be that I need
to consult one, but is it the considered opinion of those of you who have
studied this issue that in fact the law (that is, the U.S. Consitution)
requires that any filter be disabled for any adult looking for any and all
constitutionally protected speech? Such as whitehouse.com or
kittenwithawhip.com (that last is a hypothetical)

 

What about tap-on-the-shoulder policies or (my favorite) the little lecture
asking "don't you know where you are?"  Are those actions unconstitutional?

 

If I thought there was nothing I could legally do to stop people at our very
busy public computers from displaying graphic nudity to all and sundry, I
think pulling the plug would seem a reasonable option.  We are using a porn
filter here and as someone who has been wading around in the WWW since the
beginning, I am mighty glad we do. I am in favor of civil rights and the
rights of people to free speech and expression. I think libraries do
function as a public forum, and that we should not act as parents.  But I
also think that hardcore porn is something we as a society WANT to see kept
behind the soaped windows of Red Letter News or in a sad creepy little
chalet-like hut off the Interstate. Hardcore porn is usually
constitutionally protected speech, but it isn't an appropriate use of the
library.

 

We have had these issues in the real world before this -I have never worked
in a library that had Playboy, but I did work in a library that had 5 copies
of Madonna's Sex. (Long story why we had five copies.) It was the only title
we ever restricted to those over 18. The copies were kept behind the desk
with other frequently-stolen titles such as The Poor Man's James Bond and
The Satanic Bible. As an art work, it was considerably improved after the
metal spiral binding failed and the copies were rebound in library buckram.
It was about the size of a book of crochet patterns, with S-E-X hot-stamped
in white on the orange spine. Much more perverse. 

 

Obscenity is defined in part by "community standards" and I know that my
community would be really unhappy if we had to unblock porn sites. 

 

 

Patty Dwyer Wanninger

Director

Blue Island Public Library 

2433 York Street

Blue Island, IL 60406

708-388-1078 ext 14

 

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