Apparently, that's false. Please read "People Power Forces Porn Filter," by Nikkii Joyce, Sunshine Coast Daily, 18 August 2009.
Here are choice quotes, emphasis mine:
FYI, here are more library crime and filtering stories from Australia's Sunshine Coast.
Community anger and a petition signed by 4664 people have forced the Sunshine Coast Regional Council to take action to install internet filters to block pornography at public libraries.
Mayor Bob Abbot has admitted the strength of the petition and an increasingly vocal public pushed the council into a corner.
....
“That is what a petition is for, to give council an indication of community feel and when the petition first came round it gave us that feel so we kept on with the process,” he said.
“The problem we faced is making a decision without the information,” Mr Abbot said.
....
Councillor Anna Grosskreutz, who has supported the campaign from the start, said a closed forum held in the morning was brief and to the point.
“There are many things that are being eroded and people and families are losing the ability to choose what they want to see or what they want their children to see, so this is a wonderful result,” she said.
....
Has your library said petitions or public input are practically irrelevant? Add a comment to let others know.
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I am all over this post.
ReplyDeleteOur library board REFUSES to place porn filters on our public library computers here in West Bend. They claim it is "censorship." Lately when I hear that term it causes me to laugh right out loud, literally! The cry of censorship is being overtly abused within libraries across the nation to allow porn to pop up in the faces of children, and promote books/materials with sexually explicit content to be available to minors. Let's do word reversal. Let's take out the word "censorship" and, instead, swap it for a term that is more befitting of a librarian/library board...."sponsorship." You see, when you speak "sponsorship" into the actions of the ALA and local libraries, you breathe life into the true nature of the agenda. That is, to promote the concept of all materials available to all ages, regardless of content. This means that porn, indeed, is "sponsored" by your local library. Why sponsorship? Here is your answer, easy enough. Someone has to make a choice as to what materials will be purchased for a library. Someone has to decide where the appropriate location for such books is within your particular library according to your community standards, right? In making these choices on behalf of the community they serve, librarians (as directed by the sovereign ALA) choose for YOU and for YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN and for GENERATIONS TO COME what they make available to all. Yes, SOMEONE. That "someone" spends your tax dollars on sexually explicit teen books and shoves them on the shelves in front of the eyes of children; enticing, encouraging. That "someone" also makes the decision on your behalf to DISallow porn filters and, subsequently, ALLOW your tax dollars to support the porn habits of disturbed people with a fetish for viewing anything from raw sex, to child porn and worse. Yes, we can all attest to the ramifications of the "sponsorship" of our local libraries. If only we could have input as to how our money is spent. Alas, not so.
West Bend also turned in a petition to capture the attention of the local library board, hoping for open discussion and possible consideration. The taxpayers and parents were shut down with a comment similar to "The library board does not RECOGNIZE petitions." West Bend should be ashamed of the actions of the library board. All eyes on Australia for setting a higher standard for youth.
It gets worse! I heard there's books right out there in the open with teenagers having sex in them!!! But teenagers don't have sex - never have never will, not my teens! How can this be?
ReplyDeleteI'm horrified? Do you know how many times people have looked at child porn at your library? I bet it's a lot!!!
Silly you!
ReplyDeleteBut I must admit, you are probably correct about people viewing child porn!
Thanks for confirming!
Maziarka: "If only we could have input as to how our money is spent."
ReplyDeleteBut you do have input. The library board members are nominated by the mayor (who you directly elect), and then approved by the city council (who you directly elect).
Indeed, your efforts have already resulted in the effective removal of 4 board members who weren't proceeding according to your preferences, and new ones were placed on the board by these representatives.
You DO have a say, and you ARE having your say.
Now, if you don't like the ultimate results, that's an entirely different issue....
Do we then remove the city council or mayor if the library board fails the community?
ReplyDeleteIt's also true in Council Bluffs, the mayor appoints interested candidates to the board with city council approval. Although, most library board members are from the "Friends of the library."
I would be interested in a petition locally to see how the library board responds to a request or interest in computers being filtered.
Our library "sponsors" porn also!!!
WBCA,
ReplyDeleteAren't your children your own responsibility? I mean if you're going to make me and the library raise them for you I might do so in such a way that they aren't thrown into an existential crisis by the word "boobs."
-Chuck