Apologies that I've cross-posted this to LITA-L so some of you will have seen this there.
We had a recent incident with one patron seeing another patron viewing pornography on one of our internet computers. This patron decided to write a letter to our local paper talking about how we permitted unfiltered access to the internet and everything that lives there (I'm paraphrasing, probably poorly). Now our board wants to talk about this at the next board meeting. We do have filters on our public internet access. We use a PaloAlto firewall for internet filtering. We do a semi-regular review of what's being blocked and make adjustments as needed. Our filter blocks a lot of things, but if someone gets elicit material sent via email that will get through and Tumblr has a lot of explicit content for two examples. So, my question is, have any of you had a patron upset with the content another patron was viewing on the internet (I'll assume that's yes for most of us) and what do you do in that situation? Do any of you have suggestions for filtering that you're particularly happy with? Getting rid of filtering is not an option. Neither is getting rid of computers in the library. :) I'm not terribly concerned about the upcoming board meeting but I know there's a lot of smart people on this list and I thought it would be beneficial to hear what you had to say. John Klima Assistant Director Waukesha Public Library 262-524-3688 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [LOGO_signature] "What libraries need to be are engines of innovation that help develop tomorrow" - David Lankes The opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily represent those of the Waukesha Public Library or the City of Waukesha. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email has been scanned for email related threats and delivered safely by Mimecast. For more information please visit http://www.mimecast.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
