LISNews: Librarian News

Rebecca Hunt sent in this link to a Story from sunspot.net MD is the latest state to make a move on filtering.

Maryland State Senate Sen. Christopher Van Hollen Jr.\'s bill to require local library systems to develop policies to prevent children from being exposed to Internet pornography.
\"I hope his bill gives the librarian the power to go over and pull the plug or say, `You cannot view that material here,\' \" Ivins said.
Ivins was one of several witnesses who called on the Senate Environmental and Economic Affairs Committee to approve the Van Hollen bill, which has received broad bipartisan support.

Van Hollen, a Montgomery County Democrat, is one of the more liberal members of the Senate, while his co-sponsors include conservative Republicans Andrew P. Harris of Baltimore County and Christopher J. McCabe of Howard County.

Witnesses said use of library computers to get onto Internet sex sites was a serious problem.

Kristin Thompson, 25, she was walking through a library in Oxon Hill with her 15-year-old brother when they saw a computer that was left showing an explicit scene involving sex with animals.

\"It was disturbing for me to know that my brother had to be exposed to such vulgar and explicit material,\" she said.

The bill would give library systems broad authority to draft policies, but would give the state school superintendent the authority to make sure each jurisdiction had a policy in place.