LISNews: Librarian News

Super Helpful R Hadden Writes :
Today during all the hype about Internet filters, we forget that not
to long ago people were paid by the state with tax money to censor and
filter for us. These people had the right to determine what other people
could or couldn\'t see. Their censorship decisions were backed up by force
of law and police powers of arrest and imprisonment for opposing those
decisions.
Mary Avara was for 21 years one of the official and state-paid movie
censors in Maryland. Her job was to review domestic and foreign movies
before they could be shown in the state, and to determine what could and
couldn\'t be seen by other citizens. -- Read More

Lois Aleta Fundis writes : Here\'s an
article LISNews might be able to use. The World
Wide Web at work: It was mentioned on FindLaw\'s
newsletter (based in California), and although posted
on a South African news site and forwarded to you from
West Virginia, our story takes place in Munich, where
two lawyers have asked Germany\'s Family Minister to
\"officially class the Bible among books considered
dangerous for children because of its violent
content.\"

This is quite an interesting take on the
bible.

\"The Holy Book contains passages of \"a
gruesomeness difficult to exceed\" which are glorified
as the will of God, the Bavarian lawyers Christian
Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel said in their
submission to the minister on behalf of \"some parents
of minors\". -- Read More

In a follow up to the Whoopi troubles in WI, JS Online has a
OP-ED piece that puts it all
into perspective. He says both sides over
reacted.

\"Society does this kind of thing all the
time. Kids can\'t go into a store and buy Playboy; they
can\'t see an R-rated movie by themselves; they can\'t
browse through the stacks at an adult bookstore.
Computers and cable television have lockout options
that try to keep pornography away from children. -- Read More

Someone sent in this: \"Found this following a link from the American Family Association site. Call to action against ALA.

Librarians Discuss Stocking Erotica \"

From the story

\"Public universities appear to be taking the lead in developing erotica collections, but many community librarians have now been emboldened by the ALA seminar.

To make matters worse, the ALA favors giving children the same access to explicit materials that is afforded adults. -- Read More