In order for librarians to state their case on the matter of filtering, they need to see the other side of the controversy. This will make their argument stronger. Art Linkletter, in the Nando Times had this to say about filtering:
\”Professional librarians go through years of schooling to acquire degrees in library science, and they are taught to discern worthy from unworthy material. Given limited resources to buy books, librarians routinely choose not to buy rubbish. Few, if any, libraries stock their shelves with unvarnished porn…The libraries\’ argument is, to put it charitably, inconsistent.
In order for librarians to state their case on the matter of filtering, they need to see the other side of the controversy. This will make their argument stronger. Art Linkletter, in the Nando Times had this to say about filtering:
\”Professional librarians go through years of schooling to acquire degrees in library science, and they are taught to discern worthy from unworthy material. Given limited resources to buy books, librarians routinely choose not to buy rubbish. Few, if any, libraries stock their shelves with unvarnished porn…The libraries\’ argument is, to put it charitably, inconsistent.
\”Librarians\’ discernment regarding printed materials is not just a professional responsibility. It is a community responsibility. Public libraries, after all, exist to help members of the community gain access to knowledge.\”
\”But when it comes to the Internet, librarians seem to toss all that they stand for as professionals out the window. It\’s either 100 percent access to anything on the Internet, or no Internet access at all. Any exercise of discernment is branded with the scarlet \”C\” of censorship.\”
\”Yet it does not seem unreasonable for a parent to expect to be able to allow an eager young reader to use a library computer without encountering hard-core porn. Parents don\’t expect kids to find such stuff on library shelves, so why should they have to worry about electronic porn at a library?\”
\”The solution imposed by Congress may not be the best one. Internet filtering software has its flaws. It sometimes fails to block porn, while it also sometimes blocks benign content. One anti-filtering group recently demonstrated that a leading software program blocked a congressional Web site. But these are mere inconveniences when compared to a wide-open pipe pouring porn into a public library.\”
\”In a more reasonable world, librarians would more widely understand that their responsibilities apply as much to electronic media as they do to print. Alas, libraries have rejected responsibility.\”
\”The result is a new law that, as critics claim, may not work very well. Yet the law is at least a good-faith effort to mitigate a very real, national problem. Whatever imperfections the law may have, librarians surely brought it upon themselves by rejecting legitimate concerns about Internet porn.\”
Recent Comments