There seems to be something of a coming trend for libraries to block access to PayDay loan company websites … These all do seem to be at the behest of the local political masters, rather than (thank God) the Library staff themselves. Sorry – maybe I missed this particular lesson, but when was it deemed…
Here’s some interesting links from this week. I have some stuff to say about the manga/porn case (in sum: a fair chunk of some manga is porn, and that’s completely OK), but that will have to wait until I’ve got some more time. From Boing boing: Apple gets into the book banning business Apple’s refused…
Nancy Branscombe and Gina Barber, City Councilors and Library Board Members from London, ON, are the 2008 recipients of the Award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada. The CLA press release clearly states that librarians were the advocates for internet filtering: The initial impetus for the London Public Library filtering plan did not…
The Guardian reported that today China expelled foreign journalists from Tibet to try and stop the flow of information about the violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters. The Editor of the Guardian wrote to the Chinese Ambassador to the UK: “I am writing to express my deep concern over the apparent blocking by Chinese authorities of…
CLA Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom released the results (7 page Word document) from their survey of challenges in Canadian libraries today. Items challenged ranged from Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby to The Golden Compass; books, graphic novels and film; and internet filtering. Almost all of the challenges resulted in the item being kept…
At our IFC meeting last night, we talked a bit about Internet filtering. Is anyone talking about this any more? It seems as if most library systems we knew about have fallen into a groove of comfort with whatever decision they made about filtering all those years ago. Whether it’s completely unfiltered, filtering kids’ stations…
In one of the core classes in library school we had field trips to different types of libraries (public, academic, school, legal, special, etc). I had the pleasure of visiting Sylvia’s school library and was inspired by how alive the library felt and the creative projects that the students were doing. On National School Libraries…
Last week the London Public Library Board voted 5-4 in favour of continuing to filter most adult workstations. Cory Doctorow nicely summed up the problem with filters in an article in the Guardian: These systems are failures because they continue to allow the bad stuff through. They’re disasters because they block mountains of good stuff.…
The management team of the London Public Library recommended that adult workstations continue to be filtered with a commercial internet filter (Netsweeper). They had done a pilot project to see what patrons and staff thought of having many adult workstations filtered. Not children’s workstations, but adult ones. I like that they are transparent in making…
Thanks Ann Curry for posting this to the IFC listserv. A big hurrah for the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario for passing a motion expressing concern about filters being applied to adult workstations at the London Public Library. I wish I had some buttons left to send you. …
intellectual freedom committee - bcla 
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