Head Tale

I started the week talking about a discussion the librarians at RPL were having about the issue of patrons viewing pornography on the public access computers.  Although this is an important philosophical discussion, I'm happy to report that (at least as far as I know), patrons' viewing isn't being monitored or censored and no policy changes, either at the library or at other levels, are being contemplated. 

Libraries in Ontario may not be so lucky.  A retired police officer in Cambridge Ontario saw someone looking at porn in the library and began a campaign to get filters on the library's computers.  That's typical enough and happens with some degree of regularity in all public libraries I suspect. 

But this situation has escalated.  A local MPP in Cambridge took up the cause and has introduced a private members' bill that would legally require all school and public libraries in the province to install internet filters. It has gone through a first reading, and even though the OLA website points out that Private Members' bills rarely get passed, this is still cause for great concern, especially since it was introduced as an addendum to an existing private member's bill which the Cambridge MPP, Gerry Martiniuk has been trying to pass for awhile. The main thrust of the existing bill is to make public the list of sexual offenders. In other words, Martiniuk is lumping  access to library computers with pedophiles and other sex offenders (And unfortunately, I'm sure he's not the only one who sees this as a connection – both in the wider world and in the library community itself.)

Many observers point out that Cambridge is “the only library system in the Region that doesn't use filters.” (which means that Kitchener, Waterloo, and the Region of Waterloo all filter at least the computers in their children's areas). The big difference is that Cambridge, with the full support of its board, is actively choosing not to filter.  If this law passed, they could be legally required to filter as could every other public library in Ontario as well. 

There has been some local media coverage of this story and many letters to the editor.  But they've been fairly one-sided because (and I speak from personal experience here), it's pretty hard to come out in favour of porn – although there are some who are very articulate in the attempt. 

Whether this bill has any impact remains to be seen but if there's any further developments, I'll post an update.