Librarians oppose a high court ruling on porn filters.
LEWISTON – At the Lewiston Public Library, the four computers in the children’s room are censored.
Software installed on the machines should filter out pornography and obscene Web sites while allowing kids to do legitimate research. But sometimes it doesn’t happen that way.
“The filtering doesn’t work,” Director Rick Speer said. “They under block or over block.”
Because Internet filters block Web pages that contain certain words, patrons can find themselves banned from sites about health care, breast cancer or sexually transmitted diseases.
So when Speer learned Monday that the federal government could force him to place filters on all 14 of his library computers, he wasn’t happy.
“It disproportionately affects poor people,” said Speer. “Those are the people that don’t have the good computers and Internet access at home. It limits the information they can get at.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Monday that the federal government could require all public libraries to block pornographic Web sites by equipping computers with filtering software. If libraries don’t install the filters, the government could refuse to give them federal funding.
The decision was quickly denounced Monday by the American Library Association. A day later, many Maine librarians called the court’s ruling “disturbing.”
“I feel like rights are being taken away from people,” said Justina Nazar, director of the Ludden Memorial Library in Dixfield. “It’s like Big Brother watching over you.”
She believes it’s important for her 2,500 patrons to have access to information without interference. In her small, family-friendly rural library, five computers are always connected to the World Wide Web, ready and waiting and unrestricted.
Most people use the computers for e-mail and research, Nazar said. On a few occasions she has caught people looking up pornographic pictures or obscene Web sites that could offend others. She talked to the offenders or banned them from using the computers for a while. That quickly took care of the problem.
“This is a free country and I think you should be able to come (to the library), go on the Internet and do research without having to go to the librarian and tell them why you want to get on,” she said.
////Worth the money?
In Lewiston, Speer has tried to keep kids away from dangerous sites by placing filters on the four machines in the children’s room. Although the filters don’t always work, they allow kids to do some Web research while adults remain unrestricted in the other room.
If Speer put filtering software on all 14 of his machines, he said, patrons would constantly ask staff members to turn off the filters so they could get to information. The library receives between $8,200 and $11,200 a year in federal aid. Should the government demand that he place filters on his computers, Speer isn’t sure it will be worth the money.
“We are stretched really thin” said Speer. “My people are out straight and now we have to make a decision whether we’re going to go along with this.”
At the Rumford Public Library, director Karl Aromaa is in a similar predicament.
His library has eight computers in constant use. Although library trustees talked about putting filters on the machines, they ultimately decided not to. Instead, staff members keep an eye on young computer users to make sure they don’t wander into any sites they shouldn’t.
The library hasn’t had any problems with pornography, no one has been blocked from a legitimate site and no First Amendment rights have been violated, Aromaa said.
“I just think it can be handled without this type of intervention at the federal level,” he said.
Since his library receives thousands of dollars from the federal government, Aromaa isn’t sure yet what it will do.
“My plan is to hold tight and wait for the state on this,” he said.
According to the Maine State Library, which offers direction and guidance to the state’s libraries, Maine receives about $3 million a year from the federal government. On average, individual libraries receive between $2,500 and $8,400 a year. That money pays for telephone and Internet connection costs.
Linda Lord, director of library development for the Maine State Library, said many librarians will face a “terrible decision” when it comes to filtering and federal aid. If they block Internet sites, they may feel like censors. If they don’t filter sites, their libraries may not be able to afford Internet access.
She said she hopes to give Maine libraries some guidance by the end of July.
Comments are no longer available on this story