2556 This should alarm librarians

Although public library staff consider blocking or filtering certain sites to protect children to be against their ethics, their budget and their technological know-how (see comments at #2542), I'd read in Wired that Gina Trapani had created a simple little hack for her own computer to block MySpace so she wouldn't waste time at work. So while browsing that site, I came across the story taken from New Scientist, that the data on MySpace and other social networking sites might be used for data mining. Government snoops really get librarians' shorts all twisted. So that, and not protecting children, could raise an eyebrow about these sites. Heaven forbid the NSA be lead back to a library computer.

"Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals."

I don't bank or buy on-line, but I think there are way too many public records online--like photos and floor plans of our homes with neighborhood maps at the state auditor's site. How handy is that for burglars? And Ohio State University hasn't been able to figure out how to stop using my social security number for ordinary transactions like checking out a book.

data mining

2542 Will librarians ever think "children first?"

This is so tiresome, it makes me glad my children are 37 and 38, but I sometimes wonder if we're graduating LIS students who are 12.

"There have been multiple stories in the news in the last few months about schools, libraries, and colleges banning MySpace for reasons of bandwidth-hoggery (which in a select few cases could be well-argued) or what's being sold as "safety concerns," "behavior issues," or "user protection." That last one makes me sick when I hear library staff touting it. Physically sick. Why? Because it's censorship. Plain and simple." Librarian in Black

Because it is censorship. You betcha. Bad for bandwidth and she can support that, but not the protection of children. Someone doing cancer research won't get to look up body parts, maybe. No library is required by its mission statement to distribute entertainment free circ newspapers (like my P.L. which has made this a censorship issue) or to promote chat rooms or even e-mail. It defeats their information mission in many cases, if the CRTs near me are any example. Librarians will eventually kill the public library system, I predict, with their leftist gibberish. Not a peep when a librarian is sued for suggesting a conservative book, however.

Have these librarians never strolled through a room full of geezers and geeky kids side by side at computers? Parental control? Who are they kidding? They don't notice the parents who use the library as a free latch key program? Do they go online and check the addresses of the sex offenders? In MySpace they might as well reside IN the library. Do they have such great eyesight they can spot an 11 year old in MySpace pretending to be 20? Or that sweet 75 year old rubbing his privates while pretending to be a teen?

Really. My profession is such an embarrassment.