Good morning: Daniel asked that Suzanne Freeman and myself who are ARLIS
liaisons with ALA ACRL to periodically pass along information that
might be of interest to ARLIS members.
This topic of pornography and filters, although more of a public library
issue, does unfortunately come up in college and special libraries where
patrons have access to our collections. and with our computers that have
internet connections. I am sure some of you have had complaints from
patrons who feel uncomfortable with the 'pornographic/artistic' displays
on the screens of those sitting next to them.
Thought you might be interested in the issue as it stands right now.
PAULA EPSTEIN
Chairperson , North American Relations Committee
Mark Rosenzweig To: ALA Council List
<iskra@earthli <[log in to unmask]>
nk.net> cc:
Subject: Forever Seeking
Cover
Even as the Courts look again and again at the case for filtering
censorware and say "no" on Constitutional grounds, Casey is admonishing
us
in ALA to give up because it inconveniences him to have to carry the
burden
of explaining what it is that's really at stake or taking a little heat
in
explaining how we DO protect the interests of children.
And if he doesn't see how the 'causes celebres' used to advance the
agenda
the far right -- yesterday it was 'homosexuality', today it is 'internet
porn in libraries' -- are any different than, for instance, the opposing
efforts of ALA to fervently defend intellectual freedom in the CIPA
controversy (blinded by the brilliance of his own sophomoric formulation
--
repeated over and over --of how left and right meet and are
indistinguishable, notions which I last heard from a bumbling civics
teacher in junior high school, but decked out by Casey with his
favorite
cliche of the insignificance of what he elsewhere -- and often -- calls
'culture war' issues), if he doesn't see that there is a Constitutional
matter at stake here, where librarians are called upon to rise -- as
they
HAVE risen, by and large --to the occasion of defense of the First
Amendment and, indirectly, separation of Church and State, then I guess
we'll just have to argue it out once again in Libraryland and all go
back
to library school to study the ABCs.
Nobody is trying to stifle Casey and his campaign to turn us around on
this
issue. But if we do get dragged into this, I would personally appreciate
it
if he canned his unseemly attempts to associate me with his Cold War
obsessions of the Kremlin and appartchniks (or was he referrting to the
OIF?).
Mark Rosenzweig
Councilor at Large
--
PAULA L. EPSTEIN, Coordinator of Library Outreach
Columbia College Chicago
600 S. Michigan
Chicago, IL 60605-1996
[log in to unmask]
(312) 334-7353 FAX: (312) 334-8071
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
|