Despite the recommendations of the Lewisville (Tex.) Public Library Board, the city council voted 3-2 on July 20 to have the library run filtering software on all three Internet workstations when public cyber-access debuts there several months from now. Council members chose the plan, which smacks of a Loudoun County (Va.) Library policy that triggered a federal lawsuit earlier this year over a trustees' proposal to filter only the children's-area machine.
"Unless our library staff is willing to stop minors . . . then we need to take the high road," Council member Mike Nowells said when told that LPL staffers weren't planning to monitor youngsters' use of unfiltered computers. "You are preaching to a brick wall," Mayor Bobbie Mitchell reacted when one councilor characterized the counterproposal as censorship.
The city council also plans to review the library's recommendation of which filter to purchase, the Dallas Morning News reported July 22.
Posted July 27, 1998.