I probably don't even need to explain the contents of this article from
We seem to hear about this kind of thing happening all the time. I was surprised at the somewhat balanced tone of the story, as opposed to the “Your public library – the new
The mother’s ignorance is pretty sad. She says “you've got to watch them 24/7 even in a public library, a place mostly for children.” I’ve never known a public library to be mostly for children, or mostly for adults. Also, she sounds like she’s maybe a little upset that the library can’t be her babysitter.
The author quotes the library director as saying that “there is a fine line between censorship and appropriate behavior”. From what is reported in the article, I think the librarian(s) did exactly what they should have, with the information that they had. They had a policy in placed, they enforced it, and they didn’t overstep their bounds.
A brief aside: I think one of the worst aspects of the Web 2.0 world is allowing comments to be posted to pretty much any news article in any online source, including reputable newspapers. While people certainly should have freedom to voice their opinions, a brief glance at these comments will turn up hateful speech, bad grammar, and faulty reasoning. How that makes the world a better place I'll never know.
2 comments:
Hi Joel!
I work in an academic library & deal w/porn complaints at least every other week. Our policy is similar to the library in the article-if no one complains, we don't interfere (so long as it's not illegal, like an adult viewing child porn or a child viewing porn). I've even had the unfortunate opportunity to call the police on a user that was gratifying himself at one of our stations...great image to have in your head!
The thing that gets me about irrate parents expecting libraries to be centers of moral rightiousness is that this stuff is ALL AROUND THEM! Maybe they just aren't looking? I've walked out of the drugstore and seen a man completely naked in his driver's seat masturbating...seriously. There are always going to be "these types" of people around & while it may be disturbing, it's not that unusual. Yes, these men are on porn sites whenever we hear about it in the news, but is it just because we notice what they're doing when we notice they're looking at porn? How many people have masturbated to automobile ads in the library, but no one noticed? Just a thought...
I agree--the writer wrote a pretty balanced article! That's refreshing!
Kathleen
Ooh, libraries, drugstores, and automobile ads. Ouch! I go to the public library to focus sometimes and was there a couple of months ago working on an article when I realized that the man across the room from me (separated by a glass wall) was masturbating and watching me to see if I noticed. I had a deadline and was feeling cranky so on my way to report him to the desk, I walked over and gave him a piece of my mind. It makes me laugh to think about it. I ended up feeling sorry for him - but not too sorry.
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