Trustees of the Memphis–Shelby County (Tenn.) Public Library and Information Center unanimously approved staff recommendations September 23 that will deny access to sexually explicit URLs. Based on the staff report ordered by the board several months ago, the library will install CyberPatrol at the server level and modify its patron request-for-reconsideration and purchase forms to include Web sites.
Library spokesperson Bobby King told American Libraries that URL blocking and unblocking requests will be referred to the collection development officer just as print and nonprint requests for removal and acquisition are. The committee made its recommendations after studying library Internet policies around the country and testing a number of filters.
“It’s a total victory, because the library has never admitted before that there was a problem with pornography,” George Kuykendall, executive director of Citizens for Community Values, said in the September 24 Memphis Commercial Appeal. He was one of some 300 people carrying anti-pornography signs outside the September 23 trustees meeting.
Posted October 4, 1999.