New Jersey Library Association
Begins Testing Filtering Software
The New Jersey Library Association last week began testing filtering software to determine the restrictiveness of its blocking power. Prompted by the increasing number of libraries in the state that are using filters, often on all Internet terminals, a committee of six librarians on NJLA’s public policy committee will conduct the tests.
Marie Mento, manager of the Burlington County Library system’s Pemberton Browns Mills branch and a member of the committee, said in the November 2 Philadelphia Inquirer that she wanted to serve on the committee because BCL’s decision to install I-Gear software on all its computers represents “a danger that we’re going to be blocking out material that is constitutionally protected.”
NJLA Executive Director Patricia Tumulty told the newspaper that the association does not favor filters on all computers, despite the fact that they are being used in more and more libraries throughout the country. “We are grappling with how to walk the line of constitutionally protected speech and making sure parents have control of what their children see,” she said.
Posted November 8, 1999.
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