Library Net Use Takes Backseat at DC Summit

Staff -- School Library Journal, 1/1/1998

To discuss ways of reducing the risk of exposing children to online pornography, Vice President Al Gore and approximately 400 representatives from groups as diverse as Internet service providers to child protection interest groups met at the Internet Online Summit: Focus on Children in Washington, DC, last month. Approximately two dozen ALA members and staff were on hand to speak on panels and answer questions, including Judith F. Krug, Executive Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, and Steven Herb, Immediate Past President of the Association for Library Children to Children (ALSC). Library reaction to the summit was mixed: some felt too much attention was devoted to children's home use of the Internet; others felt the meeting gave librarians chance to start airing some of the complex issues inherent in Web access for children in libraries. ALA took the opportunity to unveil its list of 700 librarian-recommended Web sites.