Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Poke around the Internet long enough and a plethora of pornographic Web sites soon becomes apparent.
Adult Web sites are intended for adults. State and federal laws are quite clear about minors accessing obscene or sexually explicit material on computers provided by or supported with tax dollars.
The federal government is so serious about denying minors (children under age 18) access to objectionable material on public computers that it passed the Children's Internet Protection Act.
The law, signed in December 2000, warns libraries and schools that federal funding will be lost unless filter or blocking technology is in place.
Until June 30, 2002, a library or school may certify they are taking actions toward CIPA compliance.
The Warsaw Community Public Library board of trustees has taken a steepled-finger approach to installing filtering software.
After months of discussion, the board decided this month to file a notice of certification.
Why not just install a filter?
Because they're full of troubles.
Several software companies promote their filtering wares. They work by recognizing key words in a particular site or URL.
According to WCPL director Ann Zydek, the pricey ($15,000 to $30,000 per system, plus maintenance costs) programs are only about 80 percent effective.
Savvy Web browsers can find ways to access adult material.
The filters are notorious for blocking other Web sites, too.
"They will also block sites you may want to go to," Zydek said, "because something might trigger the filter."
No-porn.com, for example, is an informational site against pornography. Most filters would block the site because of the key word "porn."
Sites that are not pornographic but reside on a server that also has a porn site could be blocked.
Sites that a filtering company considers borderline may be blocked.
Michael Schuyler, a columnist for Computers in Libraries magazine, writes in the June 2001 issue that filters are doing more harm than good.
The systems librarian for the Kitsap Regional Library System in Bremerton, Wash., Schuyler has tested numerous filtering systems at his library.
"Would you wear a bulletproof vest if it were rated to work 'sometimes?'" he writes.
His article references a Consumer Reports magazine article ("Digital Chaperones for Kids," March 2001, pp. 20-23) that reports filters fail to block unsuitable sites 20 to 90 percent of the time.
This has caused the WCPL board to take a let's-wait-and-study-this-awhile attitude.
The CIPA law does not recommend any particular filtering software, so it's a hit-and-miss proposition for any library when obtaining a filter.
The software company will not reveal what its hit list is, either. Company names could be blocked, anything with an "x" could be avoided or perhaps the words "beauty" and "love" will be filtered.
At WCPL, computers with Internet access are located in a separate room and library staff monitor in a discreet, over-the-shoulder kind of way.
Minors under age 18 using library-provided Internet access must first have signed permission from a parent or guardian. The library staff also strongly suggests they be supervised by a parent or guardian.
Children using the computers are responsible for good behavior on-line just as they are in other areas of the library.
Policy violators, who are few and far between, according to Zydek, lose their privileges.
On the other hand, the library staff wrestles with the issue of privacy. No librarian has ever flipped up a seated patron's book or magazine while they're quietly reading.
"We want to make sure there is a level of protection for our youth," Zydek said. "Our current policy works in our local community."
It doesn't necessarily work for the library, however. A good filter would free up the computers and free up time spent monitoring.
A worthy filter would allow the library to move computers with Internet access into the youth area and other parts of the library, not only giving patrons more time to use them (66 hours, compared to the 40 hours they're available now) but freeing up the monitors to work on other projects.
Assistant director Joni Brookings figures she's studied the filtering topic for years. The library has tested demonstration software.
"We've decided none of them are perfect," Brookings said. "I want the one that can give me the most flexibility, whatever that one is. ..."
The computer software industry changes names and ownership as quickly as clicking a mouse.
Software purchasers don't know which company they'll be dealing with next or if they'll honor their predecessors' claims.
Currently the library board is considering a time management program that will allow patrons to log in with their library card instead of scheduling time with reference desk personnel. It will keep track of the time used (up to two hours per day) on the computers and patrons would be able to schedule their own appointments.
The time management software also offers certain access levels that can be geared toward minors and adults.
While access to information is considered a fundamental right of citizenship, the library struggles to be as right as it can be.
