At the system's libraries, pornography is blocked site by site, if the site doesn't meet the library's selection criteria, which are the same as those used for printed, audio and video material. Jack, the system's Internet gatekeeper, enters lewd sites into a proxy server after employees or patrons complain about specific ones. But before blocking them, Jack and Roberts view the Web sites to determine whether they're pornographic. The system has a selection policy that emphasizes inclusiveness, accepting books, magazines and other materials if they have any redeeming social value. The library's collection includes sometimes controversial or erotic materials like Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence.
Officials say they are using the same criteria to ban Web sites.
It's an inexpensive and nonintrusive method. Nevertheless, patrons frequently browse sites that some would consider obscene. During one day two weeks ago, a Playboy site received 655 hits within the library system. Although championed by free-speech advocates like the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, the Central Arkansas Library System's policy is scorned by conservative groups like the Family Council, which unsuccessfully sponsored state legislation last year requiring that filtering software be installed in all public school and public library computers with Internet access. Cox said he received a phone call last week from a woman appalled after she saw a man viewing obscenity at the public library in Jonesboro.