Read the full and original by one of the women (Tiffani) who led the effort here:Â http://asmallmoment.blogspot.com/2012/09/victory.html
Here is part of her story of events:
In July, Heather Nerren and I got to work and created a Facebook page called, “Stop Porn in Spokane Public Libraries.” As of now we have 449 members on this page and it continues to grow. Big supporters like Dan Klineman the watchdog of safelibraries.org and Dawn Hawkins from Pornharms.com have been contributing valuable information and news articles to our page in order to inform the public of similar library incidents that are happening all over our nation.
Dawn Hawkins has made information available to those who want to fight pornography in their own local library districts.
Click on the Facebook Page and you can download the files which are…
A general Plan for Local Leaders
ALA Statements
General FAQ
The Law
Yesterday evening the Spokane County Library Board met to discuss the revision of their Internet Use Policy. The room was packed with community members and leaders. Not one chair was empty and some people had to stand. It was indeed a remarkable showing of support! I am honored to have been a part of it all and grateful for those who boldly stepped forward to voice their concerns.
The new Internet Use Policy will be posted on the library website soon. The old policy and revision (draft) is on pages 33-39 of the meeting agenda http://www.scld.org/about/
The Library Director of Information Technology, Pricilla Ice spoke and shared with us how the filters work on the computer. The district uses a Barracuda filter which is:
An integrated content filtering, application blocking and malware protection solution. It enforces Internet usage policies by blocking access to Web sites and Internet applications that are not related to library use, and it easily and completely eliminates spyware and other forms of malware from library computers. It blocks the following:
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Nancy explained the revision to the policy which basically is that the computers will have filters on at all times and if a patron wants to have access to a site that they need unblocked for research purposes they will have to fill out a request form, including the website they want to view. The library will have 72 hours to respond. The librarians have every right to say no if someone want to access sexually explicit material. Patrons may also ask for certain sites to be blocked if they deem them inappropriate.
The library staff will be monitoring the computers more frequently and any violators of their Internet Use Policy, will be asked to leave and/ or banned from the library for a year. If anyone sees suspicious activity they are asked to report it to the library and they will notify the police.
There is more to the policy of course and not all of it was discussed for sake of time, so I would encourage you to read through it and be educated. Share it with friends, your children and teens.
Several people were allowed to comment to Nancy and the Board before the voting of the policy took place. Everyone was respectful in their comments and the board generously addressed each of the comments. I felt the meeting went rather smoothly and thanked God that Good men and women stood up for the right.
I was very emotional throughout the meeting, several people thanked me for my boldness in bringing this issue to light and the board repeatedly apologized for the incident having occurred. I felt that I was validated in my efforts and I am grateful for those who stood beside me.
My comment to the board was something like this…
“…It takes one time for a child or teen to see a pornographic image and it can be enough to cause a lifelong addiction. I reiterated my experience at the library on July 2nd and mentioned that my 6 year old son would’ve easily see the pornography and become addicted from that one time. I shared my concern with them about the placement of their computers and how easy it was for a child, teen, or adult walking by the man to see pornography he was viewing.
“When I go to the library, I allow my children to look for books in the Children’s Area and I migrate over to the self-help section which is right next to the computers. My children tend to walk over to the adult/teen section in search of me, to share with me the books they’ve found. They did that day and I immediately shielded them from the pornography. “
I then asked the Board to consider changing the placement of the adult/teen computers and thanked them for their time and efforts in hearing out the concerns of the public and revising their Internet Use Policy. They said they would think on that.
