Cataloging Pornography

Re:Pornography cataloging
I did send e-mails to the two authors and to the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Academic Librarianship. Text below is a combination of the two e-mails I sent.

“Libraries, for the most part, do not collect pornography in book or other paper copy format. Why then should they catalog pornography sites on the web? They can be found all too easily by those who want to find them — and all too often by those who do not want to find them. Catalogs are designed to facilitate access to information. Is this really the type of information you want to make any easier to find than it is already? And to cloak it with a veneer of pseudoacademic respectability?

Let me ask if you would also propose cataloging racist web sites and adding them to library opacs, for example:
http://www.martinlutherking.org/
Or how about a site which insists all homosexuals will go to hell and which advocates violence against them?
Why not catalog web sites which blame the ills of the world on Jews?

I see the disclaimer statement in your article on page 37 which states “We wish to make clear at the outset that this article does not advocate the inclusion of child pornography Web sites in library catalogs; indeed, this article has no application whatsoever to child pornography.” While this disclaimer is appreciated it is puzzling to me. If you advocate inclusion of adult pornography sites in academic library catalogs because this is a topic of serious research, couldn’t you make the same argument for child pornography? Why the distinction, unless it is on moral grounds? And what happens if 5, 10, or 20 years from now child pornography becomes acceptable in mainstream popular culture? What is the source of your value system? Why not accept the arguments of the NAMBLA crowd?

Your article shows a disturbing disconnect when it comes to moral or ethical values. You just dismiss pornography as just one aspect of “popular culture”. Is there no longer any such thing as evil? No, evil exists and it is real. Covering it up in pseudoacademic garb doesn’t change what it is.

I think there are some who have an adolescent fascination with this kind of thing and who may still be acting out adolescent rebellion in order to shock people. Well, there will come a point, if it hasn’t already come, where nothing is shocking anymore.

It is one thing to have a book which studies this kind of thing; quite another to actually facilitate access to the “primary” source material which underlies it.

Looking at this from another perspective, does cataloging of these sites represent the best use of scarce human resources in many academic libraries today, and do these sites truly support academic curricula? I’m sure you can always find a course here or there which may deal include discussion of pornography as part of the curriculum; on such grounds, a library can collect material on just about any topic which exists. If a library has limited staff in Technical Services and it’s a choice between cataloging a site which, as Bill Katz is quoted in your article “”seeks primarily, even exclusively, to bring about sexual stimulation.” and a timely science encyclopedia — which one should receive priority? In fact, is it worth any staff time whatsoever to include pornographic sites as defined by Katz? “