A lot of people from this weeks 511 class are probably going to be talking about filters in the library; either that or I am a week behind on this subject. Not filters you put in the coffee maker mind you, internet filters. As a librarian do you allow people to go wherever they want using your internet, or do you use filters? Senator John McCain pushed through a law that required libraries to put in place internet filters in order to continue receiving federal funding. The law was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2006, to the celebration of McCain.
This is a tricky and highly controversial subject. First, because it involves money, many libraries, especially small public libraries, depend on federal funding and grants in order to continue operations and pay for things such as computers and books, and would be severely curtailed if they couldn’t get that funding. Filters can be good in that they block people from being able to look at X-rated material in the middle of the library, ten feet away from children and other adults. (You have to have some sort of mental disability if you can look at stuff like that in a public place.) On the other hand, these filters might block sites that people might need to reach, that have nothing to do with such material. Plus there are also ways to get around these filters, granted some of the people will not know anything about how to do that, but there will always be that one guy.
If your all for open access, then you don’t really care for filters. I for one am one of those undecided people who is teetering between opting for filters and not having them at all. Eventually I will probably have to make a choice, but I feel this takes more research. Yay, research!
Also, something having nothing to do with filtering:
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