Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU Newsgroups: bit.listserv.autocat X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Message-ID: Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 09:59:36 -0500 Sender: "AUTOCAT: Library cataloging and authorities discussion group" From: KAREN SCHNEIDER Subject: Filters, homosexuality, responsibility, and so forth Lines: 163 To prepare for my next column in American Libraries, I have been testing Internet filters. I've installed (and uninstalled) Cyberpatrol and Cybersitter; I have my workstation configured for Bess, a proxy-server, but didn't quite get around to it, this being a busy week. All three of these products know what's good for us--in other words, they have proprietary site and keyword lists that you can't view or edit (one of the issues addressed by Jerry Kuntz in his list of features in filteringsoftware). Most of them block many websites even vaguely related to gay issues. And even OCLC isn't safe from these products. Let's get very specific and real-life. Last night, on my way out the door, I decided to do a little bv (bibliographic verification, for you nonlibrarians) for a bibliography I'm editing on resources for Christian lesbians. I popped into OCLC, yanked up records as quickly as I could (I had a train to catch), hit the print key a few times, logged out, ran to the printer, grabbed stuff and ran to the train. The OCLC display, I recalled later, had some little glitches, but I was working very quickly and focusing on getting out of the office in five minutes. Once on the train I pulled out my laptop and the OCLC printouts. The first printout I saw was for OCLC 32273786, a record for "Our Tribe," a book by the Rev. Nancy Wilson on her experiences as a pastor in a LA congregation for the Metropolitan Community Church (a denomination with special ministry to gay and lesbian Christians). I noted that the book had been cataloged by the Library of Congress, which invariably means a high-quality record, in my rather primitive cataloging experience. But my first reaction was to get annoyed at the Library of Congress. They had left the word "queer" out of the title, and hadn't used any subject words related to homosexuality (or so it appeared)! So the title was: Our tribe : $b folks, God, Jesus, and the Bible / $c Nancy Wilson. And there were odd blanks in all four 650 fields; for example, 15 650 0 $x Religious aspects $x Christianity. 16 650 0 $x Biblical teaching. Religious aspects of what? Biblical teaching about what? My other records were like this as well--including records NOT cataloged by Library of Congress; and of course at this point I realized I wasn't dealing with a loose-cannon cataloger tweezing words out of records, but that a filter product I had tested--probably Bess, since it is sstill installed--was diligently blocking all words in OCLC records related to being gay (except sometimes, as it turns out, "gay" itself), and a few terms related to human sexuality. So OCLC 22608292, one of Bishop Spong's books, had the following title: 8 245 10 Living in sin? : $b a bishop rethinks human / $c John Shelby Spong. And yet the 650 field was: 13 650 0 Sex $x Religious aspects $x Christianity. Let's see, now. Terms such as homosexual, queer, and lesbian are not ok, and neither is the term sexuality, but the term "sex" is ok. In the middle of a record describing a highly academic book about homosexual Mormons (see OCLC 32895125, Same-sex dynamics among nineteenth-century Americans : $b a Mormon example / $c D. Michael Quinn), we find the maddening line in the wonderfully rich 505 field: -- The earliest community study of s and s in America : The earliest study of WHAT? I have a number of other examples, but you get the picture. So let's get frank. There has been a lot of talk lately about the "necessity" of "doing something" about the Internet. Libraries are licensing and installing filtering tools, sometimes with little or no evaluation of the product and how well it fits into their collection scheme or how poorly it fits into their role as protectors of intellectual freedom. Sometimes I get the distinct impression that they don't WANT to know what they're doing. Every once in a while someone will make a vague comment that "gay groups have complained," but some people I *thought* believed in human rights and civil rights have touted filtering tools that blindly block everything related to homosexuality. Meanwhile, gay librarians have to tread carefully, because if we talk about this issue too much we are told that "ALA is not about social issues." Word up, boys and girls: I am not a social issue. Nor am I some perversion to be hidden from your children. But I'm aware that slapping a software filter that makes decisions for you makes it very easy to look the other way. Why not be direct? If you think homosexuality is such a problem, fine; go through your collection and remove every book and magazine referencing homosexuals, however vaguely. Warn patrons, at the door, that gay attire (freedom rings, pink triangle earrings, Gay Pride Parade Marshall t-shirts, etc.) is as unacceptable as bare feet. But don't install Cyberpatrol, or Bess, or Cybersitter; use a tool such as Net Nanny or a proxy server such as Squid that allows you to manually block all the concepts you don't want in your library. No Ellen DeGeneres, no Christian lesbians, no gay Mormons--go in and consciously do this by hand. Make the list available to patrons, if they ask (they should know what you're doing, right? Don't they butter your bread? And besides, you have nothing to hide--right?). Just, please, don't install tools such as Cyberpatrol, Cybersitter or Bess and call yourself a librarian. That's tantamount to the bookburners in Fahrenheit 451 who called themselves "firemen." And don't minimize the impact of blocking all gay-related material; there are many of us "social issues" out there, and after several decades of civil rights battles, most of us are not ready to be blotted off the global information map. (I would also think there's some excellent potential for lawsuits on behalf of gay taxpayers.) If you're seeking a balance between civil rights and community pressure, at least use a tool that puts you in the driver's seat. And then judiciously pick the terms or sites that you truly know cross the boundary of what your library can live with. Your community is filled with people who deserve nothing less. Karen G. Schneider Director, US EPA Region 2 Library schneider.karen@epamail.epa.gov http://www.epa.gov/Region2/library/