Austin Public Library Retunes
Its Filtering Policy Again
Following a similar experiment this spring, Austin (Tex.) Public Library officials are testing the adult-access waters by turning off CyberPatrol blocking software under select circumstances. This time, staffers at the central library and the Windsor Village Branch will disable CyberPatrol at one terminal at an adult patron's request. The experiment began December 1 and will continue until the end of the month.
After the ACLU's Texas chapter and free-speech groups began complaining more than a year ago about APL's filtering systemwide, Director Brenda Branch organized an advisory community panel. "We've been getting more cooperation from the library than we thought," anti-filter panel member Mike Workman told the Austin American-Statesman November 29. The library plans to unblock one machine per branch as its budget allows.
In a May 1998 status report, Branch explains that the library began filtering after learning that patrons were violating Texas's harmful-to-minors law by displaying inappropriate material one time in a child's presence.
Posted December 7, 1998.
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