WA PL Sued over Filter Disabling

In the first lawsuit filed over a library’s refusal to disable Internet filters for adults wishing to access constitutionally protected speech, three library users and a nonprofit organization advocating Second Amendment rights have sued the North Central Regional Library District (NCRL), based in Wenatchee in Eastern Washington. Several other libraries nationally follow policies similar to those alleged in the lawsuit. In the Washington case, the plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Spokane, charges that NCRL configures SmartFilter, Bess edition, to block numerous categories of Internet content. One plaintiff has tried to research youth tobacco usage for academic research, while others have tried to research health topics and firearms. NCRL director Dean Marney told the AP that the library has since changed its software and allows sites to be unblocked.

The American Library Association (ALA) advises libraries that, under the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the government’s interpretation of the statute, they should disable filters upon requests by adults. Marney, however, cited to LJ a March/April 2005 article from Public Libraries that stated that the law does not require the filter to be turned off. Now the issue will be tested in court.

Marney said that NCRL, “a rural library district with 28 mostly small-town branches,” tries to “treat the Internet as we would any other area of our collection.”

On November 27, after Internet users were known to be persistently looking at pornography on three computer terminals reserved for adults, managers of the Mt. Clemens Public Library in suburban Detroit decided to suspend Internet access until a new policy is devised. The board will meet January 22.

Previously, according to library director Donald Worrell, patrons signed on with their first name and could ask to then have a half-hour on the computer. While the library filtered Internet access, patrons could ask for the filter to be turned off when they log on, as per a common interpretation of CIPA.