I stopped in the D.M. Hunt Library the other day and for the first time in memory Cookie Kubarek wasn't laughing. Our head librarian seemed uncharacteristically riddled with angst. Could it be the Cookie was crumbling? Nope. She had just made the difficult decision to not allow students under 16 to have access to the Internet without written permission from a parent or guardian. She was grappling with her decision as if she were Sandra Day O'Connor because Cookie is a staunch defender of the First Amendment, but she also feels a responsibility to protect the children of the town.
Cookie's primary concern was not, as I assumed, pornography. It was myspace, the website where millions of teenagers make virtual bulletin boards about their lives and make friends and connections. Many adult sexual predators create myspace accounts and pretend to be teenagers to lure unsuspecting girls and boys (who often pretend to be older than they are.) Cookie was concerned that allowing free access to the computers might not be in some children's best interest. If the library were bigger and owned more computers, she could have designated children's computers with filtering software but there is no filtering software on any of the computers currently.
As she tacked the notice to the bulletin board, she told me she was prepared to be criticized. She had considered the options and decided this was the sanest course of action even though it did not make her happy. She is one tough Cookie.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
A Smart Cookie
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1 comment:
We are most fortunate to have Cookie; she really is a librarian's librarian! When I served on the Hunt Library board I recall several discussions concerning materials that might be considered controversial, especially in a small-town public library. Although our Cookie is always a congenial lady, always kind and never bellicose, she has always been a fervent defender of the first amendment and the privacy of her patrons. The Internet is an acid test for librarians, and it is a tribute to both her conviction and her common sense that she has made the difficult decision.
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