Re: Librarian Profile/Washington Post [times]

[Shelley Glantz <sglantz@MASSED.NET>]

I agree with Dan, however I don't think he goes far enough. Besides the fact
that current filters really don't work, my main issue is who is deciding
what is sex education and what is more than that. The Go Ask Alice issue is
a case in point. I don't want someone in a very conservative area making the
decisions for my more liberal community. That's why librarians are taught
selection skills, each school's print collection will be different. I think
we need to teach adults and kids how to select and evaluate sources on the
Internet, as we select and evaluate print.

Shelley Glantz

At 07:04 PM 10/30/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>On the filtering aspect: What  the school library professionals need
>to do is bring pressure on the filtering companies to produce an open
>filtering product that meets the needs of libraries. It should
>provide the librarian with the means to specify exactly what and what
>is not allowed into the library.  It should not be something
>controlled by the filtering company, an ISP, or a general LAN
>adminstrator.
>
>While no filter can be perfect since there are unscrupulous website
>operators that will stoop to very low levels to get hits on their
>sites, one that is done well should work quite well.
>
>A filter should be able to distinguish between a sex education site
>and a multi-x rated sex site.  It should be able to distinguish
>between a site that is about highs from drugs and a site that is the
>home page for a high school.
>
>It should be easy to configure so that chat sites are locked out, but
>web-based email is enabled... or vice versa.   Overrides should be
>able to be entered locally, and stay configured until changed
>locally.
>
>I could go on, but I think you get the idea.  It's not impossible,
>but does take some more effort and work to achieve.  Control of
>materials for the library should be in the hands of the librarian,
>not in a piece of software or a company with its own agenda.
>
>
>Dan Robinson
>Indexing Services
>H.W. Wilson Company
>Bronx, NY
>drobinson@hwwilson.com
>dlrbnsn2@eclipse.net
>
>
>On 30 Oct 99 at 17:53, michele missner wrote:
>
>>.....  On the one hand, I think that filtering (we have it in our
>> school district) often filters out the good and leaves the bad.  We
>> would not order pornographic literature for our collections in schools
>> so just what do we do about the Internet?  As a person who is over 45,
>> female, and liberal, I am in a bind.  What should I do and what do we do
>> about articles like this that do not talk about the good things we do,
>> but portray us in a pejorative light?
>> Michele Missner
>>
>
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Shelley Glantz
Coordinator of Libraries & Information Technologies
Lexington (MA) Public Schools
sglantz@massed.net

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