Librarian Suspended over Patrons' Web Access

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?"

My Rights Online???!!

[Anonymous Coward]

what the hell does a suspension of a librarian have to do with my rights or anybody else's?

The fact is that the librarian's superiors didn't think she was doing enough to stop people from browing for porn, and they took action.

I also like how the slashdot summary noted it was "adult matierlal" when it was in fact kiddy porn, which is not legal at all.

This story is not very interesting or relevant to most people. But it at least it provides a forum for the Chicken Littles to scream about the death of Free Speech, Big Brother, yadda yadda yadda, the sky is falling crowd.

Standard Policy?

[Zakir]

If someone reports the user to the librarian, the librarian walks over, what power do they have? The person will most likely close the window when they see the librarian. Is the librarian allowed to ask the person to leave or ask person to stop using the computer? Is there a standard policy for what to do, and the librarian isn't following it or does the person just make it up when they catch somebody?

Re:That's Stupid

[cyberfunk2]

Https proxy anyone ? That'd go right through the firewall.

Obvious answer: make sexual offender wear ID

[gearmonger]

I don't know why this isn't obvious to everyone, but if we have a problem with sexual offenders roaming around anonymously and using public computers to look up pr0n sites, then there's only one solution: make the offender wear a shirt or ID or something that shows everyone that he's not allowed to do certain things. For example, he could be forced to wear a bright orange "SO" t-shirt at all times when in public, just like those yellow drunk driver license plates some states have.

And yes, I'm totally kidding...don't mod me down for being sarcastic. Of course, now I might be modded down for pointing out my sarcasm, thereby negating the humor. Crap.

Don't you see!! It's all part of the plan..

[Halvy]

Here's the lovely Catch-22 that's been set up for this librarian: Librarians are not allowed by federal law to restrict what people view on the Internet. Now, the librarians can be suspended/fired for NOT restricting what people view on the Internet. What the hell is she supposed to do?

She supposed to do what every other good fanatical amerikan is supposed to do, and just 'shut-up' and make believe that she is guilty-- on BOTH aspects of 'The Law'.

This 'catch 22' is now the norm, with 'the governement' attempting to convince us all how 'bad we are' and how we 'need-them-so-much' to keep us safe from 'ourselves'.

The governments philosophy is clear; make us 'feel' so confused and guilty-- in EVERYTHING that we do (and don't do), that we all feel constantly confused and unsure about what 'the-right-thing-IS-to-do'.

Re:That's Stupid

[qw(name)]

It wasn't the librarian that's getting suspendeded. It's the "The director of the Valparaiso (Fla.) Community Library".

It looks like people are on a witch hunt since a registered sex offender downloaded child pornography from the library's website.

If anyone should be fired it should be the librarian on-duty sice he or she was not doing his or her duty of performing a walk-through of the area and monitoring all the computers.

From the article:

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."

Re:My Rights Online???!!

[kfg]

Libraries do not traditionally maintain collections of adult material on their shelves. . .

Lolita, Portnoy's Complaint, How to Draw Nudes, Ruebens and the American Library Association reports that the most commonly stolen library items are copies of the magazines Road & Track and . . .Playboy.

The world is full up of adults and libraries are full up of adult material for them to access, unpoliced (well, except for that PATRIOT thingy).

There is also an essential difference between denying access by not actually having the material to view and providing the means to access the material but telling people not to use it.

This is just another case where appending the words "on the Internet" makes things different somehow.

And it would make just as much sense to sack the City Commission because the incident occured on their watch as it does to sack the head librarian because it occured on hers.

I guess the City Commission has spent some time in the library researching the fallout from Abu Ghraib.

It's time to play "Find a Patsy."

KFG

Librarians

[Renraku]

I know an ex-head-librarian.

Let me tell you, if they have time to sit around and monitor users internet access all day, they are not doing their job.

You have a lot of responsibilities at that job, and one wrong step and everyone's clamoring for your resignation.

Consequently, she refused to use filtering software. Mainly because it was easy to get around and way too restrictive. Monitoring the internet usage should be done by the assistant librarians, but the head librarian is more worried about other stuff, like you know, making sure the library stays open.

Re:Is it in their job description?

[yfkar]

What could the head librarian really do? Sit behind peoples' backs eyeing for adult material? Not any porn filter works 100% reliably. I've no idea what "policies" could be implemented to prevent this happening. Perhaps a red alarm ringing and blinking when it detects the word 'sex' in a webpage. ;)

how much and how long?

[E8086]

Sounds like local politicing and a witch hunt.
How much funding does the library get?
It's nice for the local politicians to say they want their library to have nice new computers for their constituents to use, but back out when budget time comes and they might give the library enough for the hardware, but not a cent more for upkeep, firewalls and/or filters and/or staff for the computer area.

How long was the content viewed for? Was it something caught by a librarian or other staff or was it noticed during a review of the Internet access logs? If it was caught during one of the "walkthroughs" then the staff did all they could. I work in a college computer lab, and the legal porn is protected free speech, but games are not allowed. It's very easy for someone to sit at the computer in the far corner to see the lab staff coming and close the window, a browers window is a browser window, just as easy to hide/close if it's porn or yahoo games.
I'm sure the city knows more about who's a registered offender more than the library and should have informed the library and possibly had their computer or library access monitored, limited or revoked.

Before they try to fire a city worker, librarians are where I am, they had better make sure they had the necessary tools and funding to have been able to do something about it, not one of the "well, if you had 'this thing' it may have been prevented, but we took that line out of their budget"

there isn't much easily findable info on this to do anything other than guess. Here's the mentioned "Gainesville Sun" article:
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?A ID=/20050813/LOCAL/208130332&SearchID=732171503810 16 [gainesville.com]

Re:Is it in their job description?

[Antony-Kyre]

Here are some thoughts.

One, librarians aren't the police. They shouldn't be forced to go around making sure people aren't committing crimes. As far as I know, child pornography is a crime because it involved harming someone, even if in the past-tense.

However, if a librarian sees something illegal going on, wouldn't it be his or her duty to report it for further investigation?

About borrowing histories, or histories of any kind (even ISP histories/logs), those definitely need to be destroyed. Same if there are surveillance cameras, the tape needs erased after 30 days in my opinion. One, it would allow any investigation if needed. Two, it prevents Big Brother from becoming too powerful.

Re:Is it in their job description?

[Anonymous Coward]

That view is so 19th century. You know, back when information was not enough to blow up an entire cits.

Re:Is it in their job description?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can attest to that, too.

The library here, for which I am a volunteer, used to require patrons to sign-in to a computer before using it. They'd capture the name, date, and computer number.

Now people still sign-in, but the paper is destroyed at the end of the day. Their only purpose is really to track the number of users for statistics, and nothing else.

Re:Very Deliberate

[mhearne]

In the past 40 years, we have gone from an industrial nation with a hard currency, to a paper nation of the pseudo-wealthy, and their neccessary servants.

Since the dollar began to float, in 1971, the buying power of that dollar has dropped by approximately 80 per cent. It has dropped 55 per cent since 2000 alone, when the present regime came to power.

Rome existed for 1,000 years, and was finally destroyed by uncontrolled immigration. There just wasn't enough to go around.

We may be past the point of a peaceful resolution to the totalitarianism that is overwhelming us. Historically, only violence has been a successful solution to dictatorship.

Why can't we look at "adult" images at the library

[_aa_]

Libraries are for grown-ups, too. Adult images aren't illegal. Libraries aren't day-care centers, although I think that's what some people expect them to be. If I am forbidden to look at boobies on the internet at my local library, will I soon be forbidden from looking at boobies on African tribeswomen in the National Geographic on the shelf behind the computer? Or at the boobies in a book on art? Or read a description of boobies in a poetry book? There's a whole bunch of adult situations in that there bible these assholes are always thumping. Maybe we should censor that, too.

In a million years, when the alien archeologists are picking through the remains of our society, they're going to have a hard time figuring out how we reproduced. "Well Xzgralfap, they documented the reproductive practices of every other species on the planet and labeled it 'biology'. But they're own reproductive practices were labeled 'pornography' and forbidden to be documented and studied by the ignorant."

I'm tired of it. Mary Carey for President, 2008. Her and Bill Clinton are the only two pro-pornography candidates I can think of. Don't forget to order your save the court [justicesunday.com] kit, today!

I used to work at a public library and...

[aduzik]

Even in conservative northwest Iowa, the policy was very plain: you can look at anything you want, but you will be asked to look at something different, or asked to leave the computer if anyone complains.

And, they had what I consider to be one of the most sensible policies for monitoring children I've ever seen: for children under 13, a parent or other guardian *must* be present for the kid to be allowed to use the computers.

The rationale was, well, rational: as a parent, you know what you consider to be inappropriate for your child, so it's up to the parent to make the judgment call.

I haven't been back to Sioux City in quite some time, and I certainly haven't been in the library, so I'm not sure if they've changed their policies. What I really liked about their policies is that they accounted for the unspoken question of appropriateness: appropriate for whom? The courts are never going to be able to decide what little Johnny's parents think is appropriate for him, so let/force them to decide. That's why I think it's crazy that librarians are expected to parent other people's children for them while they're at the library.

Re:I find that amazing...

[slazar]

Not all libraries censor information. Some, like in my town of Santa Cruz, CA, have linux kiosk stations out in the open. This has the effect of preventing surfers from viewing porn because people can see the screens easily. Sometimes it happens though, and they have to ask them to stop. That's all.

Just a little while ago they put in some Linksys WRT54G access points and people come in with laptops. The WRT54G has custom firmware http://www.portless.net/menu/ewrt/ [portless.net] that gives a spash page with the TOS.

Geee..People are just too horny these days

[TarryTops]

Instead of firing innocent librarian(maybe she's a hott chica who just turns on all the visitors giving them reason to go looking for porn) they should investigate why people go on net lookin' for dirty stuff instead of going out dating and getting laid. Where are the good old 70's???? I'm not from the 70's BTW(it's later) ;-)

Re:Damned if you do...

[4of12]

As I recall, the federal government tried to pull the purse strings

You mean nano-filaments, don't you?

Library budgets are right down there on the bottom rung with schools, parks and recreation and all the things society fears least and values most.