Filtered or Not, Libraries Gird for CIPA

Staff -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2004

Many libraries have complied with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which went into effect July 1, by filtering all of their Internet terminals, while others have chosen instead to maintain unfettered access to the Internet and therefore risk losing their federal funding. In Minnesota, the Southeast Libraries Cooperating (SELCO) regional consortium, which serves 36 public libraries, installed regionwide filtering in June on all of its computers. Donovan Lambright, SELCO's automation librarian, says they're blocking sites from only those categories required by CIPA, such as pornography and nudity. (Many schools and public libraries also filter sites with bad language, violent content, and information on alcohol.) The Seattle Public Library remains opposed to complete filtering. "We have filtering in all of our libraries' children's areas," says library spokeswoman Andra Addison. "But young people are allowed to use any computer in the buildings, including those in the adult areas," which are unfiltered. Addison says that the potential loss in federal e-rate and Library Services and Technology Act grant funds "was not financially significant."