Charleston Trustees Decry Filtering
for Funds—But Comply Anyway
“It’s a new Victorianism,” Charleston County (S.C.) Library Trustee Sam McConnell said of a new state law that requires libraries to filter 90% of their public-access Internet workstations or lose half their state funding. Nonetheless, the board voted September 27 to install filters on 90 machines rather than forfeit $250,000 annually, according to an October 1 Associated Press report.
The new law, which passed legal muster with the state attorney general’s office in September, has motivated 12 libraries to comply as of late September, Charleston County Library Director Jan Buvinger said. A proviso to the 2001 budget, the filter mandate will expire next year unless reratified or enacted as a separate law.
Anticipating a public backlash to their decision, board members decided to provide filter complainants with contact information for Gov. Jim Hodges and South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon.
Posted October 8, 2001.
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