They also might cause legal headaches. The American Civil Liberties Union is readying a lawsuit against Orlando's filtering policy. And last week, the Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act, which outlawed the display of indecent material at Internet sites that could be accessed by children. Suddenly, library life has gotten complicated. Librarians who were once accustomed to reviewing books before putting them on the shelves now find the information superhighway is delivering goods they never would have ordered.
Some librarians insist the porn problem has been blown out of proportion.
Kent agrees, saying the focus on peep-show patrons diverts attention from the myriad educational wonders of the Internet. She mentions online magazines, cyber museums and job listings as a few of the resources not otherwise available to library visitors. However, others say the Internet's potential as a research tool is being blunted by the inordinate amount of time that some users spend hunting for smut. Still, it's impossible to know how much time or money is devoted to porn because librarians don't monitor the terminals. A reporter likewise had trouble estimating the extent of the problem during a recent visit because many computers are semi-private.