County judge attempts to cut library funding completely if libraries do not add filters

another older column in DMN
a story from dallasnews.com.
(Page at:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/loc alnews/columnists/all/stor
ies/043005dnmetfloyd.5da60a86.html)

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08:58 PM CDT on Friday, April 29, 2005

  You know, I always thought it might be pleasant to be a librarian, to spend
all day in a peaceful place surrounded by books, to light a little lamp of
knowledge against the void of ignorance.

  On second thought, though, the job might make me run screaming and flailing
into the street. Other people’s lofty ideals and smug political
grandstanding seem to be making the librarian life awfully difficult these
days.

  Let us review the tortured recent history of the little public library in
the Denton County town of Pilot Point, where you could get whiplash trying
to keep up with the shouting over Internet access.

  The Pilot Point library, which serves not just the town but the surrounding
county, had computers with unfiltered Internet access until about six years
ago.

  Then the town’s council demanded that the computers be filtered to block
out pornographic Web sites. After 18 months with the filtered computers, a
few patrons said their First Amendment rights were being violated, and they
threatened to sue.

  The town, terrified of getting caught up in a long legal fight it couldn’t
afford, took the advice of its attorney to discontinue Internet access
altogether.

  This year, the Texas State Library and Archive Commission warned that
libraries without Internet service will lose state support.

  So three days ago, Pilot Point turned the computers back on.

  Now Denton County Judge Mary Horn says that if Pilot Point and other area
libraries don’t restore their filters, she’ll work to cut their county
funding.

  Let’s review: With filtered Internet, you risk disastrous lawsuits. Without
Internet filters, you lose funding you desperately need. If you pull the
plug altogether, the state will cut you off. My head is whirling like a
centrifuge.

  It’s mighty easy to take a political position here, but not so easy to cope
with the practical fallout.

  Easy, for instance, to nod in earnest agreement when Ms. Horn flatly said:
“I don’t want taxpayer-provided porn.”

  Well, that’s pretty unassailable high ground. To disagree makes it sound
like you’re in favor of drooling perverts camping out at the public library,
gazing hungrily at filthy videos and bizarre sex acts while little children
are working on their book reports nearby.

  The reality isn’t so simple. The filters create more problems then they
solve, said Pilot Point library director Phyllis Tillery.

  “They’re expensive, and they don’t work,” Ms. Tillery said.

  People think “porn filters” work like putting on a pair of sunglasses to
screen out the glare and harmful rays. In reality, it’s more like putting a
bucket over your head.

  Libraries have found that filters for which they paid many thousands of
dollars block access to all kinds of information.

  The software Pilot Point previously used caused the computers to flash a
warning and lock up when people tried to access a public list of registered
sex offenders; when they tried to access government employment forms that
asked for the applicant’s “sex”; when women sought information about breast
cancer; when the mother of a rape victim tried to research treatment
options.

  Embarrassed patrons would have to get a librarian to reboot the computer
every time.

  “They’d be saying, ‘Honestly, I didn’t do anything wrong,’ ” Ms. Tillery
said. A few were so mortified they left and didn’t come back.

  About the only people who figured out how to get around the filters, Ms.
Tillery said, were the determined high school kids they were supposed to
protect.

  “I think that if you use some common sense and you have a good policy,
you’ll be fine,” she said.

  Instead of filters, she thinks libraries should put the computers where
they’re visible to employees and post rules warning that pornography is
off-limits.

  Makes sense to me.

  About five minutes into the conversation with Ms. Tillery, I got the sense
that if she caught you looking at dirty pictures on the library computer,
she’d call the cops and chase you out to the parking lot.

  It’s easy to have an opinion in this debate. It’s a lot harder to cope with
the reality.

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