Abstract
AbstractDrawing on and expanding previous graduate course research, this paper investigated and analyzed public libraries’ policies regarding patron use of legal, visual Internet pornography on public computers. Pornographic imagery that falls within legal boundaries is protected by the First Amendment. Incidents of, and library responses to, pornography viewing are not a new issue and have caused turmoil across the field of library and information science. In an attempt to understand the problem, the research question asks: how do public libraries respond to patrons viewing legal Internet pornography, while upholding First Amendment rights as well as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and other legal requirements? Libraries tread a fine line to protect First Amendment rights, respect community laws, and uphold CIPA. Research indicated that responding to Internet pornography use in public libraries is heavily dependent on individual, community and library values. Policies are more likely to prohibit patrons from accessing Internet pornography, and most libraries have at least some Internet filtering software restricting what content may be accessed on public use computers. However, evidence also suggests that regardless of policy or filters, library staff will at some point encounter a patron accessing Internet pornography.
Highlights
This research was graduate coursework which aimed to discover an “ultimate policy” to meet everyone’s needs
Drawing on and expanding previous graduate course research, this paper investigated and analyzed public libraries’ policies regarding patron use of legal, visual Internet pornography on public computers
In an attempt to understand the problem, the research question asks: how do public libraries respond to patrons viewing legal Internet pornography, while upholding First Amendment rights as well as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and other legal requirements? Libraries tread a fine line to protect First Amendment rights, respect community laws, and uphold CIPA
Summary
This research was graduate coursework which aimed to discover an “ultimate policy” to meet everyone’s needs. Following completion of original data collection, it became clear there is no one simplified policy regarding patrons viewing Internet pornography in U.S public libraries. The topic was resurrected outside the classroom for further, expanded research. Semi-structured interviews with librarians and library employees were conducted to address information gaps discovered in the first round of data collection. Questions from the original quantitative online survey were re-formatted for clarity and precision, and the new survey was conducted with a larger sample set. Previous quantitative data was used only for reference, and not included in this analysis
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