Survey Shows Rochester Divided Over Library Internet Plan

-- Library Journal, 4/23/2007

A survey by the Rochester (NY) Business Journal shows that its business-oriented readers are split in their attitudes regarding the threat by Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks to withdraw $6.6 million in county funding for the Central Library unless it blocks all pornography, with no option to disable filters for adults on request. (A recent public hearing drew more critics than supporters of Brooks' position.) The newspaper includes numerous quotes from respondents to the survey. "If hard-copy issues of Penthouse and Hustler are available to library patrons, then switch my answer to 'no,'" stated one of those supporting Brooks.

An opponent offered counter-argument: "Halting funding of the library system only serves to punish the people Maggie Brooks is supposed to serve." Ultimately, however, the decision may rely on legal guidance, as one commenter challenged Brooks: "Explain why Monroe County's library should violate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling when Maggie Brooks has no legal experience." The American Library Association and others have advised libraries that the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Children's Internet Protection Act allows disabling of the filters for adults on request. That is currently being challenged in court, where the North Central Regional Library District, Wenatchee, WA, is being sued for refusing to allow such disabling.