Tonight some disturbing news from our good friend Dave over at 2 Political Junkies. It seems that the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has categorized the Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents’ website as pornography and blocked access from their computers.
OH MY!
Seriously, pornography?
I took a quick look at the online library policies which indicates that material that is harmful to minors is filtered.
“Harmful to Minors” involves materials or performances that involve explicit sexual materials that depict nudity, sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse and appeal predominantly to prurient, shameful or morbid interest of minors, is offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community and taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, educational or scientific value for minors. Pennsylvania Obscenity Statute – 18 Pa.C.S. 5903
Interesting. I contacted the library for an explanation so we’ll see what transpires.
I’m also interested in what sites are NOT blocked … your feedback is welcome.
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Just a quick comment from a lesbian librarian:
I doubt it's that the Carnegie Library actively decided to block this blog, it's that the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) has forced libraries to install filters (all of which are lousy and inaccurate and overblock, which was one of the arguments made against CIPA to the Supreme Court – and they didn't care, can you imagine?) in order to continue to receive federal money. Some libraries can afford to go without the funding, but Pennsylvania has so drastically slashed library funding that I doubt the libraries can afford to turn away a single dime of federal money no matter how binding the attached strings are.
I will be interested to read the library's response.