safelibraries.org -
are children safe in public libraries?

children are not safe in public libraries

on 2 may 2007, illinois's house voted 63-51 for public library filtering bill hb1727 ! right in the home state of the ala! read " great news! internet filtering bill passes in the illinois house; moving on to the senate ," by david e. smith, illinois family institute , 2 may 2007. for the big picture, see " library obscenity battle moves to state senate ," by fran eaton, chicago sun-times , 6 may 2007. "the american library association and its state affiliates have taken the side of pornographers for the last decade, citing free speech as the reason obscene images should be available on taxpayer-funded computers." propaganda, misinformation, and bravado is being used to fool the legislators into leaving children exposed to the harm investigative reporter dave savini reported again and again and again . see the illinois library association's illinois library day where desperate threats to cut off internet access or to maximize internet filter settings are being made by the ila and statewide public libraries --so much for local control. besides dave savini's reports, for the truth based on links to material such as aclu v. gonzales (finding filters highly effective but ignored by the ila), see open letter to illinois legislators re: hb 1727 and ila misinformation , safelibraries.org , 10 may 2007. also see " hysterical libraries block internet access on day of unity ," by fran eaton, illinois review , 12 may 2007, and " culture of fear ," by greg mcclay, shush , 12 may 2007: "we are an over-politicized profession that isn't interested in actual librarianship anymore." the ila threats and potentially illegal actions worked, so expect more disruptions in the future: " emil jones and library group block internet protection ," by fran eaton, illinois review , 20 may 2007. see safelibraries' latest publication, " no local control in oak lawn ," daily southtown , 27 may 2007, and see our full set of facts backing up our statements that libraries have no local control while claiming the exact opposite, at least in oak lawn, il. this case of library propaganda exemplifies why hb1727 is needed.

the o'reilly factor : "library porn?" - feb 7, 2007: watch this unbelievable interview ! read the "so what" transcript .

look at recently committed crimes in schools and public libraries and hundreds of crimes from several years ago used in testimony before congress. (both are large because the incidents are so numerous.)

much of this in unbelievable. well now you can see for yourself why children are unsafe in public libraries. our " see for yourself " page contains investigative news videos where you can watch crimes in progress and more. each having a common thread hidden from view--the ala.

these types of crimes occur regularly in public libraries; usually librarians shrug their shoulders at it. some libraries even have hazmat kits to clean up after men because it happens so often, but they still refuse to use us supreme court-approved internet filters . are ala-influenced librarians following ala-directed policies in your own public libraries? is this what you want? another town, another library, another undercover video , another reason to cry for our children: lewd behavior at public libraries investigated , 10 july 2006, atlanta, ga .

and while they refuse to use constitutionally-approved internet filters to protect children, they seek to impeach president bush for "subverting the constitution of the united states"! what does that have to do with librarianship? talk about out of the mainstream! and the ala is running our libraries with policies of " assuming a leadership role " in providing children with " comprehensive, sex-related materials "?

the ala may be directly responsible despite the law

the american library association [ala], the chief organization endangering children in public libraries, believes it is "age" discrimination for a librarian to make a decision about the appropriateness of material for children . on the other hand, the us supreme court said in a case the ala lost in 2003, us v. ala :

the interest in protecting young library users from material inappropriate for minors is legitimate, and even compelling, as all members of the court appear to agree.

however, the ala has yet to change its "age" discrimination policy:

despite the 2003 u.s. supreme court ruling on the children's internet protection act (cipa), ... ala policy is unchanged ... because [of the] block[age of] legal information to which users are entitled under the constitution .

using this as an excuse while ignoring the us supreme court, many libraries have unfiltered internet access that attracts criminals who then go on to rape and molest children. it's so bad that communities have to band together to help library crime victims: here's a library crime victim you can help . how can the law help if the ala advises libraries to skirt the law?

new! an expansion of cipa to protect children from myspace.com! see us to block minors' access to myspace? republicans set their sites on social-networking... , by declan mccullagh, 11 may 2006, about dopa , the deleting online predators act , that would add an additional requirement to cipa. but weed out the usual media slant when reading this. we predict the ala leadership will use all its resources to ensure children remain maximally exposed to its friends, including the pedophiles (and we have some evidence but need time to get more and write it up). indeed our prediction was correct. despite myspace.com being a recruiting ground for child porn stars , and despite new jersey governor jon corzine's attorney general warning parents about the dangers of myspace.com , ala top leadership said, " hr 5319 would squash kids' first attempts at becoming acquainted with applications that will soon be essential workplace tools ." does anyone know of a more out-of-the-mainstream statement justifying children's exposure to porn and porn movie recruitment activities, at taxpayer expense, no less? months later, safe libraries was right again; on july 27, 2006, the house voted 410-15 for dopa, an extension of cipa, proving just how out-of-the-mainstream is the ala and proving to the public that they can take back control of their own school and public libraries from the ala! 410-15!! the ala is "dismayed"!!! see " dopa passes house by wide margin; ala dismayed ," library journal , 28 jul 2006, where the ala president says dopa is useless because libraries are already required to filter, but the ala advises libraries not to filter! does the ala really think people are that gullible?

the ala, continuing to defy public opinion as evidenced by the 415-10 drubbing in the house, is advising libraries how to proliferate the very activities that dopa seeks to limit . worse, the ala, totally unconcerned that pedophiles have access to children, is recommending children get myspace accounts , despite serious safety issues of children having myspace accounts .

for more, please read the toxic american public library: violating children with "harmful matter"; "a clear & present danger ," [also in pdf [544k] and word [461k] format]. here's a sample quote:

playboy's own sex and violence agenda long funded the american library association and its freedom to read ... campaign. such a conflict of interest becomes significant when the ala seeks to bring into our libraries previously prohibited "harmful matter" produced by one of its legal patrons. .... [t]he ala is in direct conflict with the majority of the tax paying public....

the ala actually pushes inappropriate material on children

the ala pushes inappropriate material on children in public libraries and public schools nationwide by, among other means,

1. refusing to change its policy regarding "age" discrimination despite us v. ala , yet the ala practices its own discrimination ,
2. recommending inappropriate books for children,
3. placing inappropriate books on " top 10 " lists ,
4. awarding sexually inappropriate books with top awards for children to ensure maximum exposure ,
5. helping local libraries avoid compliance with us v. ala , in part by promoting aclu directives ,
6. intentionally failing to inform and misinforming parents about the true contents of books, specifically those they award and place on top ten lists, all the while claiming parents have to be responsible for their own children's choice of reading materials that they were just misled about,
7. creating a cadre of lawyers to assist libraries in ensuring ala policy is enforced locally despite community standards ,
8. claiming, despite us supreme court cases, it is censorship to keep children from reading sexually inappropriate material, even though the ala intentionally filters out negative information about itself ,
9. recommending children get myspace accounts , despite serious safety issues of children having myspace accounts and a 415-10 house vote to prevent that very activity,
10. foisting the " banned books week " fraud nationwide because no books are ever banned, and librarians themselves know this , hide this , and use the "selection" process to censor out books they disfavor. see banned books week: smoke screen of hypocrisy , by linda harvey, 23 september 2005, and is it freedom to read or the usual mischief for banned books week? , by arlene sawicki, 26 september 2006,
11. claiming privacy filters are effective in protecting children when they are not, as this news video shows --and as linda chavez put it, " the screens are there to protect the viewer's privacy, not the rights of those who might be offended or harmed by the images. and if the pornographic images don't sate the predator's appetite and he decides to snatch a real child, well, who's to blame? surely not the courts or any of the other enablers ."
12. hiding library crimes, including those against children, from the police--see for example " library confidential: crimes kept secret; indecent acts, violent attacks and sex crimes not reported to police ," wbbm-tv, 2 nov 2006,
13. playing the race card to ensure sexually inappropriate material including bestiality that happens to be written by a person with black skin is not removed from children in public schools--see, for example, and the misleading title says it all, " group targets black authors' books; toni morrison's novel deemed 'smut' by parent; acclaimed memoir 'black boy' also is under fire ," and see our response , and
14. on and on.

ala librarians ensure children do not have inappropriate materials kept from them. even parents are misled so they won't staunch the flow either. but in the height of absolute gall, blatant in-your-face promotion of inappropriate material for children, ala librarians are guided by ala policy to ensure children have unfettered access to one and only one specific kind of information, namely, "sexual-related materials"! imagine, librarians no less, whose goal is to "assume a leadership role" in ensuring your children get the very material you yourself would not give them! no, not mathematics, not citizenship, not even self esteem, but "sexual-related materials" is singled out by ala policy for direct delivery to children:

ala affirms the right of youth to comprehensive, sex-related ... materials...; affirms the active role of librarians in providing such; and urges librarians and library educators to re-examine existing policies and practices and assume a leadership role in seeing that information is available for children and adolescents ....

also consider the problem with library pornography; modern brain research reveals critical importance of library filters [also in pdf [25k] format], emphasis ours:

[ala] administrators funded by the playboy foundation, turn our public libraries into "dirty book stores" to protect their patron's profits. .... in 1998 there were at least 245 nonconsensual child victims, due to reckless libraries documented in the " dangerous access " report to congress. .... despite the fanciful [ala] hysteria about children's right to "information," most rational americans want pornography filtered from our libraries.

states and communities can act to protect their children

citizens can act in their own communities to make changes , but ala policy directs local libraries to politely ignore local concerns, and most media sides with the ala. so go over their heads. state & city cipa laws lists cipa-like laws in various states and towns and arms people with information they will need to get such laws in their own states. see our table of state cipa laws ! we also present the use of non-cipa ordinances in library policy to create a similar effect. have information for us? let us know and we will post it. also see our list of state "harmful to minors" laws !

be sure to read the following so that ala propaganda is easily seen for what it is:

• us v. ala , us supreme court, 23 june 2003 [public library computer filters are constitutional and do not violate first amendment rights],
• board of education v. pico , us supreme court, 25 june 1982 [public school libraries cannot remove books for political reasons, but parties stipulated sexually inappropriate books may be removed at any time], and
• aclu v. gonzales , us district court, march 2007 [copa (not cipa) found unconstitutional precisely because internet filters have significantly improved, are over 95% effective, and they no longer block health-related information like breast cancer. and an aclu expert made this argument, no less!!]

friends for safer libraries is an example of a citizen's group trying to educate the public that, in this case, "the multnomah county library has put the freedom of porn consumers above the rights of innocent children." interestingly, this is the very library that lost big in us v. ala along with the ala. it has been sued in court by sophistic free speech proponents to stop it from informing the public as it sees fit, especially egregious where the complainant says the alleged false claims actually enhance his reputation! the education worked and the man was not elected! learn from groups like this and use the ballot box to take back control of your libraries. read more here . see friends for safer libraries for the story of this particular child victim ; brading blames minnis campaign for flyer , 26 aug 2006; campaign flier: dirty politics or free speech? , 26 aug 2006; and brading sues minnis team over flier where you can add your own comments.

here's another example of citizens fighting back. citizens of positive education (c.o.p.e.) and other groups gathered at the coshocton public library , ohio to "rally for library reform." they exposed, so to speak, the public library's purchase of sexually explicit books for children and the mischaracterization of these books as wonderful for children as young as twelve. for example, read the first chapter of sandpiper (warning: oral sex too graphic to be included here). as usual, the claim is made that the book is actually a warning for children and no books should be "banned."

here are citizens fighting back in rochester, ny where cipa filters are already in use, but the library allows people to peruse porn and repeated undercover media investigations showed repeated violations, even resulting in an arrest! for more, see stop library porn .

don't give the ala "one thin dime"

we could not have said this better ourselves:

every member of the editorial board is a writer, a reader and a lover of libraries. nevertheless, by a narrow margin, the editorial board opposes proposition 81, the california reading and literacy improvement and library construction bond act of 2006.

....

speaking of local control ... even after six years, it still rankles that our librarians refused and continue to refuse to adopt a policy prohibiting access to pornography by minors on library internet terminals. when every day new incidents reveal the ease with which sexual predators solicit children online, any claims that the library is a safe place for kids ring hollow. the values espoused by the american library association are so divorced from the values of our community that we would seriously consider withdrawing from the joint powers authority and going back to the days of a city library under local control, rather than giving one thin dime to an institution controlled by an organization that believes in "all materials for all patrons regardless of age."

for those reasons, we urge a no vote on proposition 81.

" vote no on prop. 81 ," editorial, gilroy dispatch , 19 may 2006 (emphasis ours).

library journal 's editor-in-chief exposes ala's undemocratic elitism, and its hypocrisy regarding intellectual freedom

is the ala admitting it's an effete, undemocratic organization run by elitists? read the editor-in-chief's own words in the ala's own library journal and you decide: democracy in ala--too low a priority on the association agenda , by john n. berry iii, editor-at-large, december 15, 2006.

the ala uses the excuse of " intellectual freedom " for why children should access inappropriate material, why librarians will not cooperate with police tracking sex offenders, why internet filters should not be used, why librarians should be immune from prosecution for providing children with inappropriate material, etc. once again, the truth is revealed, this time in a comment to the above story by a different john berry: "as far a[s the] council goes, a recent talk back pretty much covered ala's activist member mentality. intellectual freedom as long as you think like they think and support what they say. " when we raised this issue on the ala president's blog , she did not respond, but someone basically told us to shut up and go away, exemplifying the hypocrisy of the ala's claim to support intellectual freedom.

and this is supposed to be the organization whom we are to trust for guidance in local public libraries and in drafting library law? look at just one example of the harm done when the ala sends its trained lawyers and lobbyists to write your laws and tie your hands:

library wouldn't help police identify woman pulled from river -- library confidentiality legislation nationwide must be amended to remove influence of the ala's radical agenda of not assisting the police to prevent harm or stop child predators in a timely fashion

posted: 9:38 am est february 4, 2007

lancaster, ohio -- police tried to identify a woman they pulled from an icy river by checking on her library card, but the library would not cooperate, citing a policy set by its board.

the woman, who was treated for unknown injuries, was carrying her library card on a key ring but had no other identification when a passer-by found her in the hocking river on thursday night, police said.

so a dispatcher, then an officer called the fairfield county district library and were told the library could not release the information without a court order. the woman later was identified as sheila springer, 51, by someone at the local hospital where she was taken.

the woman was later taken to grant medical center in columbus, where she would not allow information to be released on friday. the hospital said saturday they had no information on springer. there was no telephone listing for her. police did not know how she got in the river.

the library's board set the policy of withholding information about cardholders, library director marilyn steiner said saturday.

however, steiner said that after being contacted about the police request, she told her staff they could release the information if they were sure the caller was a law enforcement officer and it was "a matter of life or death." steiner said the library was prepared to release the woman's identity about 10 minutes after the first call by police, but was told it was no longer necessary.

copyright 2007 by the associated press. all rights reserved. this material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
source url of "library wouldn't help police identify woman pulled from river": http://www.newsnet5.com/news/10926838/detail.html

read even more damning information here: " librarian refused to id hurt woman; cardholder found struggling in river ," by mary beth lane, the columbia dispatch , feb. 3, 2007. "police are considering referring a complaint of obstruction of official business to the lancaster city prosecutor over library circulation manager laura gibson's refusal to cooperate."

and take part in a conversation on this issue and watch as librarians argue by changing the facts and attacking the messenger: library wouldn't help police identify woman pulled from river -- legislation needs amending .