If they re an older child or youth, they may have a slightly less strict set of rules that they can gain access to. So parents actually then are put back in the driver s seat of controlling what level of filtering their children may or may not have in their library setting. Librarian Dorothy Field, from Orlando, Florida, says her library needed some technological way to deal with adults who access pornography on the Internet. She found a software company called Net Partners, which doesn t block by key words. And then they block them from coming into our library.
Some librarians find even that level of filtering offensive and unnecessary.
The ALA s Krug fears that any filtering risks destroying the freedom the Internet and the library provide. I mean not only librarians but everybody has to remember not to let it overshadow the incredible wealth of information that is available in this medium. Yet, a few librarians are lobbying for the use of filters and even other controls over what children can see. Susan Hill works for libraries in rural Ohio, and she admits she s in a minority among librarians. That s what I want them to spend their money on.