My university’s library last year caved in and allowed cellphone use in the top floor of the library, which is the main circulation floor, and the area with the Reference works, help desk, and recent periodicals. A bunch of people wrote complaints, and the library’s response was that it is just a “fact of life” that lots of people have cellphones now, so we need to get over it. Dickheads.
The complaint board also had, a while ago, a complaint about people viewing porn on library computers. The response was essentially a “free and open access to all information” thing. I have a lot of respect for this position, because if you start banning material that some people find offensive, then it opens the door for other people to start picking and choosing what we should be allowed to research on library computers.
Of course, my prinicipled support for the position does not preclude me from thinking that anyone who looks at porn in a library is a fucking moron. I realise that there are plenty of universities where people are researching pornography for legitimate scholarly purposes, but if this is your field then i really think a home internet connection is probably essential. Hell, my wife does research on pornography, although it’s the nineteenth-century kind, and most of it looks pretty tame by the standards of today’s Pepsi commercials and swimsuit editions.
I think a good response to someone looking at porn in the library might be to walk up, put your hand on his shoulder, and say, quite loudly, “Wow, check out the size of the cock on that guy! And what about her tits. Are they real?”
If you actually see somebody viewing pornography on a library computer (as opposed to just running into the spyware and things left over), please tell a librarian. It is illegal. That’s not what the library fight about filtering is about; you don’t have a right to view things that are legally obscene in your public library.
Well, even if you’re right about this (i, like Garfield, would like some evidence) the fact remains that many libraries, while open to the public, are not public libraries. My university library is a good example; anyone can enter and do research, but it’s a private university.
The OP’s location is Carbondale, so i guess it’s not too much of a stretch to suppose that the library in question could be either the Carbondale public library, or the library of SIU Carbondale. I’m not sure if the same rules apply to regular public libraries and the libraries of public universities.
Christ. Just because something is a “fact of life” doesn’t mean it is an appropriate behavior in all places at all times. For example, it has far longer been a fact of life that people need to take a dump from time to time. Is it simply an oversight that the library has failed to install open-air toilets in front of the help desk? If not, the library is clearly not catering adequately to that “fact of life”. I mean, sometimes, you just gotta pinch off a loaf, and being asked to leave the reference area and use a special room set aside for that purpose is a nuisance. It’ll only take a few minutes after all, and anyone who’s bothered by the noises and smell needs to get over it.
Cell-phone ringtones didn’t pose a health risk last I checked.
I’m fine with their use in a library. The sound bothers me no more than the noises that emanate from the children’s section. In fact, if I had to choose, I’d rather ban babies than cell-phones.
So I’m in the public library the other day checking out this great porn site and I’m relaxing in my favorite chair - the good handicapped one which I prefer because it’s got more legroom in case I decide I need to “relieve my tension” - when my buddy calls me on my cell phone and I’m telling him about the site I found and just when I’m getting to the good part about the nun and the donkey and I’m laughing so hard I knock my beer over and spill it all over my nachos, I look over and see this person giving me a “look”. Boy, I tell you, some people got no manners.
They do for the people I stab in the face with my reference pencil after prying their cellphone from their ear and hurling it under the wheels of a shelving cart.
Anyways, I worked at a library for four years, and while I’ll agree some ringtones are annoying (one girl, I swear to god, must have had an amp connected to her cellphone), they’re still far less annoying than some of the patrons. Again, specifically those damn children, but I don’t think either should be banned.
There’s no shortage of rude mother fuckers in our school library, which is basically just a conference room lined with legal texts. The other day it was just me and this other dude when one of his buddies came in. Asshole number one started packing up his shit and chit chatting with his buddy, asshole number two. Just normal voices, not even an attempt at a whisper. I look up in order to give them a hearty helping of my patented death glare which usually shuts people up in a milli-second. Asshole number one is totally oblivious and isn’t even looking at me, asshole number two looks directly at me, making eye contact, then turns back to asshole number one and continues his conversation in his full-on outside voice. I was speechless. I could actually feel my blood boiling. Someone being oblivious, while totally annoying, is still forgivable. But someone who knows he’s annoying people and just doesn’t give a fuck? Oh hell no.
I swear to fucking god, I’m going to kill someone in that library one of these days…
Usually one computer will have a larger monitor with the settings on “Large Print” so it’s easier for some people to see. (Personally, I find they give me a headache).
There is, however, a large difference between what is illegal in all times and places, what is deemed illegal by some jurisdictional standards, what’s appropriate for view by persons under age 18, and what your personal tastes in considering something “obscene” may be.
That’s not said to provoke an argument about the definition of illegal obscenity, the appropriateness of viewing porn, or what some people might consider porn (there’s an interesting difference there), or anything else. It’s simply asserting the fact of that multiple dichotomy in American, and world, legal standards.
Do I think a public library is an appropriate place to view erotica? Generally not. (This being the Straight Dope, I’m sure we can all come up with obvious oddball exceptions, like a freelance writer doing a commissioned piece on Mapplethorpe.) Do I think a 14-year-old can legitimately relieve his desire to perve on nekkid ladies on the library computer? Nope. But there is an important distinction there, and one that needs to be kept in place.
Depends. If it’s a public (or, I believe school - as in elementary, middle or high school) library that receives e-rate funds for internet access or internal connections, they are required to have filtering software on computers. A patron can request that the filters be removed from a computer for research purposes.
College and university libraries are not eligible for e-rate funds and so do not have to comply with the CIPA requirements. cite
That said, the university or college has to set their own policies as far as acceptable use. The university where I work has the policy that we can ask people engaging in inappropriate surfing to leave. But we have to see it, and when we’re busy, we’re not necessarily going to see what’s going on at all the computers in the room.
Denver just got theirs going. I had to enter my card number and it asked me if I wanted it filtered or unfiltered. The librarian I asked said that the system looks at the cardholder’s birthdate. I assume that children would automatically be filtered. Kind of a pain - all I wanted to do was look in the catalog for Bill James’ book on the Hall of Fame.
