Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Town officials to decide fate of Internet access in Town library

Librarian defers to council on 'protecting' child users

Decision expected Aug. 18

By Clarence Cromwell

As one group of parents turns up the heat on the county library system to shield kids from Internet pornography, Los Gatos is about to consider adding an Internet connection in its library.

Library Director Peggy Murray said the library needs an Internet hookup: "People ask for it--adults, kids, everyone."

Murray deferred to the Town Council the decision of whether to censor "indecent" material. Councilmembers decide Aug. 18 whether to approve installation of the Internet connection and whether to restrict use of the site in any way.

Keep Internet Decent and Safe, the group founded by Gilroy resident Sandi Zappa, was picketing outside county libraries last week, including Saratoga's on Thursday. The group seeks the equivalent of electronic backyard fences that would prevent kids from viewing Web sites their parents wouldn't want them to see. The group suggests filtering software that stops a browser from calling up sites whose names suggest indecent material.

County library officials refuse to use the software, calling it a form of censorship. Los Gatos operates its own library, independent of the county library system, so the Town Council will have to take up the matter on its own.In a tentative draft of a report to the council, Murray pointed out the possibility of filtering software, she said. But she appeared unsupportive of filtering.

"The problem is that it blocks access to a lot of valid information which adults have rights to," Murray said. She explained that a program aimed at "indecent" material might block access to a Web site about breast cancer, for example, because of the first word in that term.

Zappa's group supports filtering software at libraries, said member Cynthia Walker, but would also be open to any other solution that would work. The group has not expressed interest in the Los Gatos Town Library's Internet site; it remains focused on county libraries.

Walker said libraries could also require a parent to be present when kids use the Internet, or the library could restrict access by encoding library cards with a patron's age. The city of Berkeley public library allows Internet access for kids only if their parents sign a permission slip.

So far, only the equipment for Los Gatos' Internet connection has been decided. A $5,000 grant from the state library will pay for a new PC-based computer and modem. The computer would contain a Web-browser, needed to look at pages posted on the World Wide Web, but the library has no plans to subscribe to online service providers, such as America Online or Compuserve.

A $24,000 project already approved will replace reference computers in the library basement. Within a month, the reference section will include five computers and an information server with room for 28 compact disks.

The staff has just started working on a purchase list. The first disks will probably include encyclopedias, newspapers, phone books, college catalogs and the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. The CDs, which are not included in the $24,000 price tag, will be purchased later with money from the library materials budget. The materials budget was increased slightly this year in anticipation of CD purchases.

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