Libraries Work to Address X-Rated Excursions Online

With their pictures of reclining nudes and anatomically correct statues, the art books at the Pasadena Central Library were about as racy as it used to get in such hallowed institutions.

Not anymore. Sitting with his back to those classic art volumes last week, one patron spent part of his afternoon staring at pornographic pictures on one of the library’s 12 Internet terminals.

Such scenes are an uncomfortable reality for thousands of libraries these days as they rush to embrace the vast informational resources of the Internet, even while it occasionally turns their quiet cubicles into pornographic peep booths.

Predictably, the problem is getting a lot of high-profile attention. A state court ruled Thursday against a Northern California woman who sued a library in Livermore after her son downloaded porn there. Congress is weighing in too, with a bill expected this year that would require libraries to block porn from their computers to qualify for government funding.

But a sampling of Southern California’s libraries reveals that the real trouble-shooting is taking place many layers below such governmental hand-wringing.

From the largest city facilities to the smallest suburban branches, librarians are experimenting with an array of strategies aimed at minimizing the electronic influx of smut. Approaches vary from the obvious--such as placing terminals in plain view of library staff--to the subtlety of using software to steer patrons toward directories of what they deem safe sites.

Regardless of their varied strategies, most librarians seem to agree that online porn is an upsetting problem; that wholesale censorship of the Net is not an acceptable solution; and that local librarians are better equipped than lawmakers or anyone else to deal with the changes technology is bringing amid their book stacks.

“Librarians have been dealing with controversial materials from time immemorial,” said Eleanore Schmidt, director of library services in Long Beach. “We are all very concerned about people’s rights and access to information. But we also realize that we’re in public buildings and offering service to children.”

Straddling those interests, most libraries are reluctant to censor the Net and instead try to contain the problem by placing hurdles in front of would-be porn viewers and taking steps to ensure other patrons aren’t exposed to the smut that does slip through.

About 73% of the libraries in the nation now provide Internet access, according to a recent survey sponsored by the American Library Assn. And most librarians said the Net has been an overwhelmingly positive addition to their resources. Most had received only a handful of complaints, and said their computers are mainly used for everyday tasks, such as online job searches, homework help and e-mail.

“I have never seen any pornography,” said Joan Bartel, director of information technologies at the Los Angeles city library system. “I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, just that I haven’t seen it.”

But even the savviest librarians might be surprised at how much porn is snaking its way up their high-speed data lines.

Porn is displayed on computers “almost every time I come in here,” said Chris Castillo, an 18-year-old Woodbury University freshman who was checking e-mail last week on one of the six terminals in Los Angeles Central Library’s “Teen ‘Scape” section. “Sometimes half the people in here are looking at sex sites.”

Patrons at other libraries told similar stories, and sometimes even the computers themselves record the evidence. Browser software on Pasadena library machines, for instance, showed that many of the computers there had been directed to X-rated sites earlier that day.

Of course, there are software “filters” that can be set up to block objectionable pictures and words. San Bernardino County is using such a system on the 10 computers in its five branches. But most libraries have rejected this approach on legal and philosophical grounds.

Offering only filtered content was ruled unconstitutional in federal court in Virginia last year because doing so denies adults access to protected speech. (Only a few types of content, including child porn, aren’t protected.)

But even if that ruling had gone the other way, many librarians said they still wouldn’t use filters because they are tantamount to censorship.

This is where Internet porn poses a new quandary to librarians, who have traditionally championed unfettered access to information, but never exactly made it a priority to subscribe to, say, Hustler magazine. On the Internet, https://www.hustler.com is part of the package.

“Librarians used to be able to say we can’t afford everything, and we can’t store everything,” said Michael Steinfeld, head of the Beverly Hills library. Because of the Net, he said, “we don’t have that excuse anymore.”

Caught between two competing impulses, most libraries are resigned to letting patrons view porn if they insist, but try to place obstacles in their way.

Simply requiring patrons to sign up for terminals is often enough of a hassle to discourage prurient teens. Orange County goes one step further, requiring minors to supply a parental signature.

Some libraries try to shame would-be porn viewers by placing terminals in direct view of the reference desk, while others think it wiser to let them have their privacy and shield passers-by from the X-rated excursions.

Los Angeles, for instance, has installed privacy screens on all 500 terminals in its 68 libraries. The screens function like ultra-thin window blinds, making it all but impossible to see images on a computer unless you are sitting directly in front of it.

Most libraries also use software to steer patrons to pre-approved Web sites. Computers are programmed to default to library home pages, which point users toward directories that librarians have selected. The wide-open Internet is often presented as a secondary option.

Long Beach subscribes to an Ohio-based service called the Library Channel, a compilation of roughly 20,000 sites handpicked by librarians. Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Orange County, Pasadena and Riverside County, among others, have their own staff-approved directories. Savvy users can bypass these with ease, but it’s still an extra step they have to take.

Children’s areas in libraries are generally treated differently. Libraries that spurn the use of filters on adult terminals have installed them on machines in their children’s sections. At Los Angeles Central Library, a staff member is always positioned at the center of the room, ready to nudge young Net surfers to safety.

At the tiny El Dorado branch of the Long Beach library, terminals in the children’s section could soon be restricted to the library channel, a welcome move to mothers such as Cathy Pohl, who brought her 6-year-old daughter in to get a new library card last week.

“I run into porn on the Internet without even trying,” Pohl said. “If they have filters on machines, I’d tell my daughter, ‘Fine, have a good time.’ ” Otherwise, she said, library computers will be off-limits.

Librarians won’t be affected by Thursday’s ruling in Livermore. In that case, a woman tried to argue that her 12-year-old son’s constitutional rights were violated because the Livermore library didn’t prevent him from downloading porn.

But librarians are very concerned about legislative efforts, such as a bill expected to be reintroduced this year by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The measure would require libraries to adopt filters or forgo federal funding.

The outcome of these efforts will have a significant impact on people such as 12-year-old Dmitri Hertz. Assigned by his seventh-grade class to write a letter to a business, he picked the maker of Barq’s Root Beer, his favorite drink.

“I tried to look up their address on the Internet at school, but the computers wouldn’t let me,” he said, explaining that filters blocked the word “beer.” He found his answer last Friday afternoon on a machine at the Pasadena library, not far from those racy art books.