The American Library Association submits this statement to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to express our grave concerns about proposed legislation which, as we understand it, would create a federal mandate for schools and libraries applying for universal service discounts to install filtering and blocking software in order to participate in the universal service program. We recognize the serious issues raised by this hearing and acknowledge that as new technologies proliferate, we must balance the extraordinary value they bring to communications and learning with responsible use and careful guidance. We are also concerned about the constitutional implications of a filtering mandate. That sweeping decision bestowed on the Internet the highest level of constitutional protection, equal to that provided books, newspapers and speakers on the street corner. Before the Committee considers any specific legislation, it must be carefully measured against the high barrier to further content regulation of the Internet erected by the Reno court.
Libraries serve as a community's principal source of information.
For many in a community, the public library provides the only access to the vast resources of the Internet. School libraries are integral to the curriculum and serve as resources for educating our children. The use of blocking software deprives the community of access to many sites that provide valuable as well as constitutionally protected information for both adults and children on subjects ranging from AIDS and breast cancer to religion and politics. While blocking and filtering products can be useful tools for parents to use at home, their use in a library setting is questionable at best. Libraries serve all the families and all library users in a given community.