Police impounded 26 computers from the Sun Prairie (Wis.) Public Library February 14–15 after an off-duty officer discovered sexually explicit photos involving children in a restroom trashcan in the library’s entryway. Acting on the assumption that someone had used a library computer to view and print the images, police obtained a warrant to seize all of the library’s Internet-accessible computers and a video surveillance tape, the Associated Press reported February 20.
Reference Librarian Beverly Kennedy told American Libraries that she was unsure what police might find on the computers, since the library does not maintain sign-in logs for Internet use, nor is there a cache on the system that identifies users. She said the crime lab estimated the computers could be held from two to six months, or much longer if evidence was found leading to an arrest.
Fortunately, the library was able to borrow some replacement computers from the city and obtain others from the South Central Library System, a consortium of 50 libraries that SPPL belongs to. “They came in and had us up and running on the evening of February 15,” Kennedy said.
Sun Prairie does not use filtering software on its computers, but its Internet policy clearly identifies unacceptable uses. “We walk through the public Internet Lab area frequently, but we can’t catch everything,” Kennedy said. Library Director Sharon Zindaris told AL, “Our board will be looking to develop guidelines for the staff to handle situations like this in the future.”
Posted February 25, 2002.