A couple of days ago I finally made it to the San Leandro Library to get some fiction books. I'm a little tired of depressing non-fiction, what I usually read. But, as I realized when I got there, I had no idea what to get - so I figured I'd go to the internet, log into my account, and check out what Salon.com had to say. That was not to be. The library was blocking access to the book review section of Salon.com. As you can imagine, I was very indignant. For a library to block access to a book review website is the most absurd thing in the world.
Mike, however, explained that it wasn't their fault. Federal law mandates that they install blocking services firewalls that stop users from accessing pornography sites. Of course, it's up to the blocking services, such as Sonicwall, to evaluate what constitutes pornography - and apparently the book section of salon.com did. I'm sure they review a few razy books, but pornography? Give me a break.
As if that wasn't enough, they rated one of my own websites, torturers.net, as pornography as well. This was a project I undertook - and then abandoned - a couple of years ago, to publicize Americans guilty of or complicit in torture. No pornography here, though perhaps there is an Abu Ghraib picture somewhere, but I think I left those at my usawatch.org website.
Meanwhile, I wrote to Salon, letting them know what was going on (haven't heard back from them). I also wrote to sonicwall asking that they change the classification of the books review section of salon to "News and Media" (and of torturers.net to something like "politics"), and I did hear back about salon. They've decided to classify it at "Adult/Mature Content" instead. Well, that's not ideal - as I expect some if not most libraries still block this - but at least it's a matter that can easily be taken up with the library.
For the time being I did a California Public Records Act request to the library, to have them send me a list of all the websites they block. And of course, I requested that they stopped blocking salon.com and my own site, torturers.net.
We'll see what happens - I'll keep you informed.
Take care,
Marga