Patron questions library's obscenity policies

Taking her 8-year-old daughter through the Newton Public Library to attend a summer reading program, Jill Rowland had to walk past the computer station situated in the middle of the library.

As she walked past, she noticed pornography — a picture of a nude woman — on the computer monitor screen in front of an adult male.

“It wasn’t something I was expecting or wanted to see in a public library,” she said. “Thankfully, my daughter was on the other side of me and didn’t see anything.”

But it concerned Rowland, and she approach-ed the library staff about what she had seen on the computer.

“I was told the filters that are in place don’t catch everything and there wasn’t anything they could do about it,” she said.

Rowland was concerned her daughter and other children coming into use the library might see pornographic images and wants to understand how the library is working to keep it from not happening again.

“We use the state filtering system on all the computers in the library — those for public use as well as staff’s,” said Marianne Eichelberger, library director. “However, we know it doesn’t catch everything, and some people are smart enough to be able to take the filters down.”

The public library has policies in place on viewing obscene material, she said.

The policy in place for the electronic services at the library states all workstations are in view of other library users and staff, and users are not permitted to display images containing gratuitous violence or obscenity. The library does not monitor an individual’s use of any sites except when material displayed on the screen may be deemed criminally prohibited by applicable state and federal laws.

The policy states Newton Public Library has no control over what is accessed through the Internet and cannot be held responsible for its content.

Kansas state law does not give a simple definition of obscenity, but in each case people must apply the contemporary community standards to see if material or performance should be deemed as offensive representations of sexual acts.

Laws prohibit anyone younger than 18 from gaining Internet access to this type of material, including nude photos. It also is against the law to knowingly provide minors with obscene material.

However, the library will disable the filter for adults patrons 17 and older upon request or in the case of minors for bona fide research or other lawful purposes, Eichelberger said.

“While we can’t always control what people are looking at, we do take complaints seriously,” she said. “When we receive a complaint, we have a process to follow.”

That process includes confronting the person accused of the inappropriate action. Those actions can include computer hacking and looking up inappropriate images and text. A warning is given the first time, and subsequent offenses can lead to banning a person from using the library’s equipment.

“Once we have a complaint about someone, for any one of a variety of reasons, we put ‘block’ on their file,” Eichelberger said. “That means when the person presents their library card or ID card to use the library’s computers or check out books, staff will see a notation come up about the violation of policy or even an overdue book fee for that matter.”

She said the man Rowland made a complaint about has a block on his file.

While Rowland is unhappy with the way the library handled the situation, she continues to take her daughter to the reading program but accompanies her there.

“I don’t like having to explain to her why she can’t go into the library by herself,” Rowland said. “It takes time from my day when I have to wait for her to be finished with a program because I am not comfortable leaving her alone in the library where she could see stuff like that walking outside to meet me when she’s finished. I wish the library would take better steps to keep that kind of stuff off of the computers in a public place where, especially during the summer, children are present and moving around the area where the computers are.”