After Teens Break in to View Internet Porn, Nebraska Library Locks Down Net

Jennifer Pinkowski -- Library Journal, 7/12/2007

In mid-May, two Yutan, NE, male teens repeatedly broke into their town library after hours in order to access online pornography. City leaders came up with a novel solution. They didn’t put a lockdown on the youths, age 13 and 15, or even on the doors. Instead, they put a lockdown on Internet access on computers until the library installed software filters that block access to sites with sexual content or nudity. The Yutan Library's board was not pleased, according to local news reports. It cited its five-year-old Internet policy, which holds that the library would not use filtering software because of free speech concerns: “Use of information via the Internet in Yutan Public Library is the responsibility of the user,” it states. 

But the city council of the town, which has just over 1200 residents, saw things differently, immediately cutting off online access to the four public terminals with little input from the library board. Throughout most of June, not even librarians could go online. On June 19, the City Council agreed to reinstate Internet access for librarians immediately and for patrons within a week, as soon as software filters could be installed, as reported in the Bellevue Leader. As of press time, it wasn’t clear whether these filters had been put in place. Library director Verna Milenkovich did not respond to phone calls or emails from LJ requesting comment. On his Travelin' Librarian blog, Michael Sauers, who works for the Nebraska Library Commission, suggested that the actual problem had not been addressed.