Mark Rosenzweig from The Progressive Librarian writes:
\”I went to a public library several weekends ago in Easton, PA (Easton Area Public Library). It was a bustling library which reaffirmed my belief in the centrality of such institutions in communities large and small. I didn\’t have my laptop with me that weekend, so while I was there at the Public Library I thought I\’d check to see if I had any e-mail (which I couldn\’t do because of some \’technical\’ problem accessing Earthlink) and then, since I had already signed up for the terminal time, I decided to try looking up some things on the web I was interested in following. They all involved …librarianship.
Guess what? \’Cybersitter\’ censorware prevented me from accessing those sites.
Much More….
Mark Rosenzweig from The Progressive Librarian writes:
\”I went to a public library several weekends ago in Easton, PA (Easton Area Public Library). It was a bustling library which reaffirmed my belief in the centrality of such institutions in communities large and small. I didn\’t have my laptop with me that weekend, so while I was there at the Public Library I thought I\’d check to see if I had any e-mail (which I couldn\’t do because of some \’technical\’ problem accessing Earthlink) and then, since I had already signed up for the terminal time, I decided to try looking up some things on the web I was interested in following. They all involved …librarianship.
Guess what? \’Cybersitter\’ censorware prevented me from accessing those sites.
Much More….
One blocked site was a link from \”Librarians With Attitude\”, a link to Jessamyn West\’s (librarian\’s ) site. Several of the the search subjects had the word \”anarchism\” or \”anarchist\” in them (as in \”Anarchist Librarians Web\”). I was excluded from all of them, and then, later, even to some of my own articles..And to more and more material having only to do with social or political aspect librarianship!
I asked the librarian on duty at the reference desk why. She came back with me to the terminal and (somewhat inappropriately) asked me exactly what website I was looking up. I told her one and she tried it herself, saying with a wink — after I told her I was myself a librarian — \”I wouldn\’t want to exclude anybody from a link from a site entitled \’Librarians With Attitude\’\”.
WHen the link didn\’t come up, I asked (among other questions the answers to which all revealed on the part of this pefectly charming librarian a curiously unembarassed disregard of the Library Code of Ethics and the Freedom to Read statement) why they were using Cybersitter when all the terminals in the library were facing the reference desk, about ten feet away and about ten inches apart, i.e. nobody could do ANYTHING which wasn\’t going to be seen by the person to the left, the person to the right AND the Reference Librarian, not — I would imagine — the ideal circumstance for viewing pornography (or anything for that matter).
Why did they use an internet filter at all, I queried. Had they discussed this and the issues involved among themselves. Were they aware of ALA\’s position? Oh yes and she said, tellingly,they all agreed it was \”So we don\’t have to be \’policemen\’\”.
I asked if that was a price she was willing to pay even though countless patrons would be excluded from innumerable sites for no appparent reason. No answer. But apparently, yes, it was the price they would pay. I checked their internet use policy, which voluntarily included filtering, something not even mandated by the local or state government. Not even inisted on by the library board. It just made liiving with the internet so much easier.
\”Why do you think I was excluded from the sites I was not able to access?\” I asked politely. She said \”Probably because of the word \”anarchist.\” \”Oh, I see. And that\’s acceptable?\”
\”You CAN ask to have Cybersitter turned off\”, she suggested, now defensively (the written policy stated as much as well).There was no unflitered terminal to use. I did want that. She said, unfortunately, however, only the info-tech librarian on duty that day knew how to do it, and he wasn\’t there. She made such a fuss about my wanting to access blocked sites and having to turn off Cybersitter that anybody but me would have been embarassed beyond words at having made the request, ANY request.
The reference librarian returning to her desk, I asked the young woman sitting at the terminal next to me (a teenager and apparently a regular patron) if she encountered problems with access to sites because of Cybersitter. \”Yeah, all the time.\”
I doubt she was trying to access hard-core porn sites.
So this is how internet filters are impacting intellectual freedom in public libraries, even for research, like mine, of librarianship. And, worse, this is how well-intentioned librarians, like the one I dealt with, and her colleagues and director and board, are complicit in censorship. It was as if, OF COURSE, \”anarchism\” was going to be filtered. I, a fellow librarian, was expected to understand. I do understand, but I vociferously object, and I have no compunction about publicly \”outing\” libraries which blithely practice this form of censorship, no matter how benevolent and polite and overworked the librarians are. There should be professional consequences for violating patrons privacy and free inquiry through the use of fliters.
Perhaps being shamed in the eyes of colleagues around the country will make librarian/censors give a little more thought to internet policies which make searching a game of \”beat the censorware\”.
Mark Rosenzweig
co-editor, Progressive Librarian
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