1. Attend the meeting (see the posts below). You probably won’t be able to speak since it’s too late to get onto the agenda, but go to see what happens and to show the board that the issue is an important one.
2. Call the library (519-661-5145) and ask to address the Board at their meeting. Your request won’t be granted, but the board should know better than to make such big changes without public consultation. Your phone call helps make it clear to the board that they should have held public meetings to discuss this issue.
3. Send e-mails to the Board members, library CEO, and Board Secretary! Please copy all correspondence to Dr. Sam Trosow (strosow (at) uwo (dot) ca) and to us (info (at) librarianactivist (dot) org). We won’t share your letter on the blog without your permission, but we would like to publicize what we can!
Board members:
svetlana@bellnet.ca
dwinning@london.ca
gbarber@london.ca
nbransco@london.ca
jerry@pathways.on.ca
j.tilley@ldcsb.on.ca
jmorga8@uwo.ca
joal_london@hotmail.com
jan.lubell@sympatico.caCEO:
anne.becker@lpl.london.on.caBoard Secretary:
jan.white@lpl.london.on.ca
4. Talk to people and groups you’re a part of: encourage them to phone or send letters, too!
More information about accessing the London Public Library Board is on this site.
-SIO
June 19th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
London Public Library’s Internet Policy and Filtering Test Project
Update from the London Public Library
On behalf of the London Public Library (LPL), I am pleased to offer you the following information on our Internet Policy Review and Internet Filtering Test Project. As the LPL’s Director of Marketing and Development, I have been following your discussions with interest. We are keenly interested in, and appreciate, your feedback and insights on this issue and so, in the interest of transparency and to ensure you have the most comprehensive view on the test project, I am pleased to be able to offer you the following information. You will note that I have included contact information for members of our Senior Team at the end of this communication, and encourage you to continue to share your feedback with any one of them and with me. We have proceeded with this test project in good faith, working both to uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and to support our mission to create a community hub that is welcoming and comfortable for all of our customers. In the interest of transparency and anticipating our June 1 test start, we shared the following information with our community partners and stakeholders in the Library environment on May 17, 2007. Again, we welcome and appreciate your thoughts and feedback on this test project.
Best,
Lindsay Sage
Director, Marketing and Development
London Public Library
—
For the period of June 1 through October 31st, the London Public Library has undertaken a review of our Internet Policy, which includes our system-wide filtering practices. In order to do so, we will be temporarily changing the number of computers we filter, to examine and test the effects on the Library’s role as both a welcoming community hub and as an access point for information and ideas. Filtering in the Library is not a new practice. The Library has always filtered in certain areas, like in our Children’s Areas and our Employment Resource Centres. It is important to note that this test project is not about restricting access to information, but rather is part of an effort to mitigate the risk of unintentional exposure of customers to images that are not appropriate for a public space. It is very important to the Library that we provide a welcoming space and positive experience for all of our customers, while ensuring they have access to the information they need. Accordingly, a certain number of unfiltered workstations will still be available in the majority of our branch locations.
This project is timely, in terms of our policy review process, and is not in response to any particular incident. We have in the past experienced isolated incidents involving the unintentional exposure of customers to images that are inappropriate in a public space, and this review will simply allow us to continue to explore ways to strengthen our role as a community hub, welcoming for both individuals and families, and to balance this with our role in providing access to information and ideas of all kinds. Further, given the constant evolution of the Internet and the growing number of workstations in the Library, it behooves us to examine our policy. As the Library moves increasingly to be recognized as an important community destination, we need to be able to ensure our Internet Policy supports this position.
The filtering software, provided by Netsweeper, allows the Library to select filter criteria. In an effort to mitigate the risk of unintentional exposure to images that are inappropriate for a public space, extreme violence and sexually explicit images are being filtered. However, resources like sexual education sites are not impacted by this level of filtering.
It is important to note that filtering is not a 100% solution, but helps significantly in our efforts to reduce unintentional exposure to these images. Filtering works with most websites but does not apply to images downloaded by email or brought into the Library on external devices, i.e. USB drives.
Because public feedback is an important part of this test project, we will be offering the opportunity for interested stakeholders to attend a public forum this fall (date TBA), where individuals and groups will be able to request delegation status and provide feedback and insights on the project. The test itself will run until the end of October 2007. The months of November and December will be used to analyze the project data, including customer, staff and community feedback, and to make further decisions about filtering going forward. At that time, a report will be made to our customers, community partners and stakeholders in the Library community.
If you would like more information on the Internet Policy Review Project or would like to share your comments, which we welcome, we invite you to contact one of the following members of our Senior Team:
Anne Becker, CEO
519.661.5145
anne.becker@lpl.london.on.ca
Susanna Hubbard Krimmer, Director, Operations
519.661.5143
Susanna Hubbard.Krimmer@lpl.london.on.ca
Margaret Mitchell, Director, Quality Improvement
519.661.5134
Margaret.mitchell@lpl.london.on.ca
Lindsay Sage, Director, Marketing and Development
519.661.6403
lindsay.sage@lpl.london.on.ca