Librarians Are Not Cops

Public librarians, long the object of bad jokes about their alleged prudishness, now find themselves reluctant cops in a new war over pornography.

Libraries across the country have enthusiastically embraced the Internet. The 500 terminals in the 68 branches of the Los Angeles Public Library, for example, allow patrons to move beyond book and periodical collections in ways unimaginable just a decade ago.

But in addition to valuable online research tools, the Internet offers easy access to a deluge of pornographic material, something libraries have not had to contend with before. So pervasive are these sites that typing in even such innocuous search terms as “girl” or “pony” or “Bambi” can link children to images their parents understandably find scandalously shocking.

Sometimes the search is intentional. Last summer, in the Northern California community of Livermore, a 12-year-old boy downloaded dozens of sexually explicit images from an Internet hookup at his local library, printed the pictures and showed them at school. His mother sued the library for allowing her son access to obscene material. Last week a state court denied her claim that the library violated the boy’s constitutional right to a safe place.

Yet librarians, parents and lawmakers continue to face troubling questions about whether or how to limit access to pornographic material in public libraries, whose varied collections and open access attest to the value this nation places on free speech.

There are few good solutions. Congressional efforts to restrict the content of commercial Internet sites have failed early constitutional tests. Libraries are experimenting with sign-up sheets, positioning terminals in plain view of library staff and software that makes it more difficult for patrons to access obscene material. Each approach has limitations. As far as children are concerned, the best solution, though still imperfect, is for parents to monitor their Internet travels, at home and in the library. Parents have the right and responsibility to decide which television shows their children watch and what books they are ready to read. The Internet is no different.