Posted April 13, 2007.

Rochester Residents Weigh In on Filtering

Some 100 people attended the first of three public forums April 12 on whether staff at the Rochester and Monroe County (N.Y.) Library System should continue their policy of allowing adult users to view blocked websites on request. Trustees scheduled the hearings as part of a policy review in response to a threat from County Executive Maggie Brooks to withhold $6.6 million in funding if the library does not crack down on access to internet pornography.

The comments ran about 2-to-1 in favor of allowing adult access, according to the April 13 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

However, the decision could hinge on Brooks’s willingness to carry out her budget cut. “If she pulls the funding, the library closes,” said Rochester Public Library President John Lovenheim. “I have to take that as a real threat.”

The library policy requires that unblocked computers must be “in areas out of the mainstream of traffic flow” and protected by privacy screens. Officials put a moratorium on all unblocking requests after Brooks’s ultimatum in February.

”It gets interesting if someone said, ‘You can have everything in the world.’ Would you take it?” Lovenheim said in the Democrat and Chronicle, answering for himself, “Yes. Because who am I not to decide what not to take? That’s the basis of the First Amendment. It’s there, and you’re entitled to it.”

Posted April 13, 2007.