Librarians as Babysitters?

August 13th, 2005

The story about a head librarian suspended because of what her patrons were viewing online has been “Slashdotted”. Some great comments, as usual:

“A librarian who walks behind peoples backs to make sure they don’t access forbidden pages might be complying with laws, but she is betraying her society by perverting her job into a propaganda officer (”citizen, don’t watch those disgusting lies, go and watch this page which gives praise to our glorious leader”).”

This is yet another “librarians as babysitters” scenario that is getting way out of hand. I just read this small note from AP about what Boston authorities are asking librarians to do:

“Boston libraries plan to post pictures of the area’s worst sex offenders so patrons and staff can keep an eye on them. Police want librarians to call them when they think something’s amiss.”

Yeah, sure. And I bet the library staff gets fired if something happens. Talk about future recruitment issues.

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