Cumberland County Library Gets 60 Days
to Placate Anti-Porn Activists
Declaring the introduction of juvenile library cards an insufficient safeguard against minors stumbling across sexually explicit materials at Cumberland County (N.C.) Public Library, anti-pornography activist Daniel Barton asked the county commission June 7 to impose an adults-only section and an external selection committee. What he got was a vague commission directive to the library board to resolve the matter within 60 days.
While commissioners Ed Melvin and Mac Tyson expect trustees to devise how to keep sexually explicit materials from children, commissioner Tal Baggett is willing to let the board decide whether to restrict materials at all. Citing the Ten Commandments, commissioner Lee Warren asked the board to present a range of options for “protect[ing] our children while protecting our freedoms,” the June 8 Fayetteville Observer-Times reported.
Cautioning that “the target keeps moving,” CCPL board President Kim Shaffer noted that since Barton first complained in January, staff have received requests to install Internet filters and remove materials dealing with Hitler and the Nazis.
Posted June 14, 1999.
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