The Library Bill of Rights (www.ala.org/work/freedom/lbr.html) asserts that a person's right to use a library shoudl not be denied or limited due to origin, age, background, or views, and I suspect most librarians also believe that this includes library materials. Another part of the bill says that materials should not be removed or their use proscribed due to disapproval. One of the most controversial information mediums available today is the Internet and many people would like to see it controlled through filters.
These devices installed in computers use keyword searches or rating systems to deny access to Web sites containing pornographic images, hate messages, or graphic violence. Though most people don't want children to see these types of things, the question is whether anyone has the right to decide what others can or cannot look at. The other question involved is how much useful information is being lost because a site used a word that someone deemed unacceptable for public consumption.
Perhaps the keyword is "public." The library is a public place. Do librarians, administrators, or even community leaders have the right to decide what the public can access? On the other hand, do librarians want the responsibility of inadvertently providing access to vulgar Web sites? Thee questions are difficult to consider and the answers are often ambiguous.
One ALA Web page attempts to help guide library professionals through these issues. The "Libraries, Children, and the Internet" site (www.ala.org/parents/librariesandinternet.html) says that libraries provide access to the Internet the same way they provide access to other materials, and they guide children to quality Web sites like they do to good books. I think this sounds wonderful, but a second look shows that it is untrue. Libraries choose what they purchase, thereby doing a type of filtering. They can't choose certain Web sites, because everything is available for one price. Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying filtering is the answer, but I don't think librarians should promise to do more than they actually can.
ALA says that it does not endorse the use of filters, but it respects individual libraries' rights to use them if they so choose. This is good to know considering it's the librarians and not ALA who will be held responsible by parents of children looking at violent sites and by adults who are offended by what they see on the screen of the computer next to theirs.
Filters are the subject of several articles in a recent issue of the American Librariesjournal. The US Senate is attempting to set a bill in motion that will require schools and libraries to receive federal rate subsidies for Internet connections to install filtering software. Senator John R. McCain hopes that the hearing will raise awareness about unsavory Web sites. Interestingly enough, while a filter manufacturer was called to testify, no librarians were. On the other side of the scale, some civil liberties groups are asking the Federal Communications Commission to list the disadvantages of filters on their new Web site along side the links to filtering software companies' home pages. More information about thes two stories can be found at www.ala.org/alonline/news/1999/990524.html
Whether to filter library computers or not is barely a question, though the idea behind them requires serious consideration. Some libraries may find filters to be their answer to site selection and others may feel they can handle monitoring themselves, but it comes down to the fact that seventy-five percent of libraries provide access to the Internet. Somehow librarians must find a way to balance protecting the rights of individuals to access the information of their choice and protecting the rights of those around them who find their choices vulgar, graphic, or simply unacceptable.
For more information about filtering:
Electronic Frontier Foundation:
www.eff.org/serv/ftp/pub/Publications/CuD/Schools
Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights concerning electronic
information:
www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/electacc.html
Voters Telecommunication Watch-Internet Parental Control FAQs:
www.vtw.org/ipcfaq