[Publib] Intellectual Freedom and CIPA

[Chris Albertson]

<Does the CIPA essentially represent, or could be interpreted as,
holding education funding hostage in order to restrict access by minors
to what it deems to be 'pornography'?>

With regard to the "essence" of CIPA I would suggest beginning with the
laborious but somewhat rewarding close reading of all the opinions, both
majority and dissenting as well as amica briefs in the CIPA Supreme
Court Case (US v. ALA in 2003) wherein the issue of just what CIPA tries
to accomplish is explicated at length by the disputants and
justices....by the way...there is much in that decision that I disagree
with on a very FACTUAL level ( for example, that ALL local librarians
can easily disable a filter when requested to do so.....personally I
think the court relied too much on assurances from "expert witnesses"
that filters and filtering were really simple things at heart and could
easily be disabled by the local librarian)....at any rate...the opinions
pretty well lay out the reasoning that accepting the funds associated
with the E-Rate and LSTA are very much "voluntary" and any jurisdiction
not wanting to filter has merely to decline these "gifts" from their
federal government and fund computer services for themselves.....in
order to steer clear of filters...which unfortunately begs the question
of whether the local libraries HAVE any other ready sources of funds
with which to purchase computers....nonetheless, the majority decision
was, in brief, that CIPA was perfectly (imperfectly?) constitutional on
several grounds not the least of which was that no library was actually
"forced" to accept LSTA or E-rate funds and not the greatest of which
was that at any rate local librarians would willingly and easily disable
filters for any "constitutionally protected" surfing by patrons..

Chris Albertson
 
Mr. Chris Albertson
City Librarian
Tyler Public Library
City of Tyler
Tyler, Texas
Voice            903-593-READ (7323)
After Hours 903-593-HELP (4357)
Fax                903-531-1FAX (1329)
E-Mail  calbertson at tylertexas.com
 
"The unexamined life is not worth living"