Florida librarian suspended after patrons visit porno sites

Anonymous Patron writes “The Gainesville Sun from Gainesville, FL reports a Florida Panhandle librarian has been suspended and may be fired by officials upset that a registered sex offender and three boys allegedly used the city library’s computers to access pornographic Internet sites.”

August 13, 2005 by Uncategorized 7

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7 Responses

  1. Anonymous Patron says:
    August 13, 2005 at 2:34 am

    This could happen to me
    This sounds like the “policy” at my library, which “forbids” viewing “images which other library users may find offensive to view.” We’re supposed to walk around, peering at people’s screens, and decide whether what they’re looking at is offensive. (Like they don’t see us coming, anyway, and switch to another site temporarily.) I’ve always felt this so called “policy” could backfire against library staff some day, and it looks like my fears have been realized in Florida.

    Reply
  2. librarygal says:
    August 13, 2005 at 8:16 am

    end of tap on the shoulder wimpy policies
    I can see the end of all the tap-on-the-shoulder policies out there. It was a wimpy halfway point between filtering and not, but if this librarian loses a job all those policies will have to go. Either filter and take the heat as an institution, or don’t and take the heat as an institution, but tap-on-the-shoulder puts it on the individual librarian and that is just wrong.

    But this is also like firing the police chief if a crime is committed in the city and someone gets away with it. ALA better be on this and FAST!

    Reply
  3. mdoneil says:
    August 13, 2005 at 9:29 pm

    Re:end of tap on the shoulder wimpy policies
    The ALA is never on anything FAST.

    Reply
  4. mdoneil says:
    August 13, 2005 at 9:38 pm

    60 days with pay? How can I get that?
    OK this is complete nonsense, what do they want the librarian to do check each patron against the state sex offender database ?

    It seems to me she did her duty to keep this sort of thing in check. If they don’t let this woman back to work after her paid suspension I hope she sues. I certainly hope the city is only waiting for the heat to die down before Ms. Martin is reinstated.

    If they hold a public hearing and are actually considering firing her I’ll drive up and tell them what idiots they are. (Of course I can then cross that city off of places to send my résumé – then again who wants to work where they blame the librarian for the convicted sex offenders porn viewing rather than the convicted sex offender.)

    Reply
  5. kmccook says:
    August 14, 2005 at 3:12 am

    SlashDot has big discussion
    http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/08/13/1436229.shtml ?tid=158&tid=95&tid=17

    Reply
  6. Anonymous Patron says:
    August 14, 2005 at 5:46 am

    Re:SlashDot has big discussion (Better Link)
    http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/13/14 36229&threshold=-1&tid=158&tid=95&tid= 17

    Reply
  7. mdoneil says:
    August 14, 2005 at 7:00 am

    Re:SlashDot has big discussion
    And quite an interesting discussion it is.

    It is especially interesting to see what some people think librarians’ duties include, and what some think of the library profession.

    Thanks for the link!

    Reply

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