Michigan Library Reluctantly Nixes the Net

Unfiltered access for minors is target of national Christian conservative group

Staff -- School Library Journal, 2/1/2000

 The board of Gary Byker Memorial Library in Hudsonville, a small town in western Michigan, reluctantly turned off Internet access on December 9. Unfiltered Net access at the library has been challenged by a local chapter of the American Family Association (AFA), a national Christian conservative group.

Last October, AFA members started a petition drive for a "Family Friendly Library Ordinance" referendum to block minors from accessing sexually explicit Internet material at the library. During the drive, Byker Library Director Melissa Huisman says she received "scripture delivered to my desk, rolled up in scrolls with ribbon around it." Since Michigan law requires every public library to have at least one unfiltered Net station, the referendum would require the unfiltered station to display a sign, in "letters at least one half inch in height," warning that the terminal provides access to materials "that are obscene, sexually explicit, and harmful to minors."

The sign seems designed to "embarrass anyone using that terminal," says Huisman. To block passage of the referendum, scheduled for a vote on February 22, Hudsonville's city council voted to shut off Net access immediately. The thinking is that if the referendum passed, it could not be challenged for two years, while a city council vote could be reconsidered anytime. Ironically, the library had planned to install a SmartGuardian system that would block much of the Net to minors, but only for those parents who wanted filtering. Offering unrestricted Net access to any minor was unacceptable to the AFA, which led to the group's demand for a referendum.

Huisman and council members hope someone will challenge their new no-Net policy. The library recently installed a T1 line and 20 new PCs for better online access. But now, not even the library's catalog and subscription services like Grolier's will be available until software is placed on the stations to block the rest of the Net. When students come into the library to request homework information from the Net, Huisman may not even give students answers from the staff-only Net station. "It's heartbreaking," she says.

In nearby Holland, MI, citizens will consider a similar referendum on February 22.--Walter Minkel