Librarian Suspended over Patrons' Web Access 414
bsw149 writes "The head librarian of the Valparaiso Community Library in Florida was suspended
after investigators found that users had viewed adult content on public computers.
While the library has a policy against viewing adult material on library
computers, the librarian is facing possible dismissal. Is the best enforcement policy to
hold librarians personally responsible for the materials patrons' access?"
Re:So, what actually happened? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:That's Stupid (Score:3, Informative)
It depends on the library. A library doesn't always need to block adult content from adults. This is partly because a librarian shouldn't be in the position to determine what is or is not adult content for the library's patrons.
Re:My Rights Online???!! (Score:3, Informative)
1) The patron was caught browsing adult material on library computers.
2) The patron was a registered sex offender.
3) The patron was caught a few days later with kiddie porn on his hard drive.
Nowhere in the article does it explicitly say (or even imply) that the material at the library was kiddie porn.
Re:Is it in their job description? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:That's Stupid (Score:3, Informative)
Very Deliberate (Score:3, Informative)
Totalitarian control in the U.S. can't take place without turning the populace into its own jailers, a'la the GDR. DHS has had Yvgeny Primakov [impeach-bush-now.org] and Markus Wolf [nsf-journal.hr] as consultants for creating "internal security measures."
Ten years from now, one-third of you will be reporting on the rest, just to keep your rare and valued job in the cafeteria. - That BTW, is the agenda behind ruining the dollar and the U.S> job markets: scarce jobs and government payrolls [counterpunch.org] == social control.
Of the new jobs [created], 26,000 (about 13%) are tax-supported government jobs. That leaves 181,000 private sector jobs. Of these private sector jobs, 177,000, or 98%, are in the domestic service sector.Here is the breakdown of the major categories:
30,000 food servers and bar tenders;
28,000 health care and social assistance:
12,000 real estate;
6,000 credit intermediation;
8,000 transit and ground passenger transportation;
50,000 retail trade; and
8,000 wholesale trade.
(There were 7,000 construction jobs, most of which were filled by Mexicans immigrants.)
Not a single one of these jobs produces a tradable good or service that can be exported or serve as an import substitute to help reduce the massive and growing US trade deficit. The US economy is employing people to sell things, to move people around, and to serve them fast food and alcoholic beverages. The items may have an American brand name, but they are mainly made off shore. For example, 70% of Wal-Mart's goods are made in China.
Where are the jobs for the 65,000 engineers the US graduates each year? Where are the jobs for the physics, chemistry, and math majors? Who needs a university degree to wait tables and serve drinks, to build houses, to work as hospital orderlies, bus drivers, and sales clerks?
The Fing Article (Score:3, Informative)
The director of the Valparaiso (Fla.) Community Library was suspended without pay in early August after city officials found that a registered sex offender had used library computers to access pornographic websites.
City Commissioner Robert Billingsley said in the August 12 Gainesville Sun that he would ask the commission to fire VCL Director Sue Martin, but he declined to explain why he thought she had not done enough to prevent the incident, which occurred July 25. Police charged Michael Bushee, 25, with possession of child pornography several days later. Billingsley said police also told him that three male minors had used the VCL computers to look at sites with adult content.
The Sun quoted a letter Martin had written to Billingsley in which she explained, "We continually enforce our policy by monitoring all computers. Any suspicious use is immediately checked by accessing the history of the patrons' Web use. In addition, the staff monitors the patrons' use by 'walkthroughs' of the computer areas."
City Attorney Doug Wyckoff said Martin would receive a hearing within 60 days.
Posted August 12, 2005.
Re:That's Stupid (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Damned if you do... (Score:3, Informative)
Which federal law? As I recall, the federal government tried to pull the purse strings on libraries that didn't install internet filters.
(Luckily, they didn't put any clauses in the law requiring that the filter actually work to any standard. A content-neutral proxy would have counted as a "filter.")
This sounds like something a patron of The Gord [actsofgord.com] might say.
I find that amazing... (Score:4, Informative)
There are several rural schools that share network access with public libraries, and this is one of the things that we have to work around (computers belonging to the school must be filtered, but computers belonging to the library must not be.)
I find it amazing that libraries in the US are not only allowed to censor information, but that they are *expected* to.
Re:I find that amazing... (Score:2, Informative)
The problem with schools and libraries is also the same in the US, driven largely by the schools' mandate to act in loco parentis (in the place of the parent), which, in libraries, is usually trumped by the open access mandate.
The most common resolution to these sort of problems is for libraries to provide filtering on an opt-in or opt-out basis, and to have policies (as this library does) placing responsibility for misuse of Internet access on the user and treating violations as violations of the library's code of conduct.
Re:Is it in their job description? (Score:3, Informative)
CDA: Comunication Decency Act
CPPA: Child Pornography Prevention Act
COPA: Children's Online Protection Act
CIPA: Children's Internet Protection Act
All struck down as unconstitutional. I think CPPA may have been the only one addressing virtual porn, the rest were mostly attempting to restrict the internet. The American Library Association has a good page [ala.org] covering these laws and the legal battles.
As for Slashdot, yes there have been several stories here addressing computer generated child porn.
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Here y'all, do some good (Score:2, Informative)
If you don't like what is going on, maybe you should be responsible enough to let those elected officials know this. Have fun.
Robert Billingsley
465 Valparaiso Pkwy
Valparaiso, FL 32580
Email: rbillingsley@valp.org
Web: www.valp.org/
Phone: (850)729-5402