ALA Candidates Support Filter Resolution; One Filters at Her Library

Staff -- Library Journal, 2/14/2000

Both candidates for president of the American Library Association (ALA) say they support the current policy that opposes use of "filtering software that blocks constitutionally protected speech." But their elucidations of that support suggest some different experiences. Presidential candidate Claudia Sumler, director of the Camden County Library, Voorhees, NJ, acknowledged during a presentation at the Midwinter Meeting that last year the library decided, with input from staff and the library's governing board, to put filters on computers in the children's area and elsewhere. However, she said, "we can take it off" and "it's important that ALA makes sure there is no legislation to prescribe filtering to us," so libraries have options to look for other solutions. Sumler's opponent, John W. Berry, executive director, NILRC, a consortium of Midwest community colleges, colleges, and universities, quoted a newspaper editoral that said it wasn't the library's business to be filtering, and that it's up to parents to teach children. "It's also up to us, as librarians and teachers, to assist patrons," he said.