Comments on: The Problem of Library Porn for Librarians

By: Dani

Dani — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:28:14 +0000

The issue isn’t porn, it’s masturbation. In the 10 years I’ve worked in public libraries, I’ve witnessed 4 major incidents and heard about many more. When patrons get into areas like indecent exposure and sexual misconduct, they certainly don’t deserve the “right to view porn” in a public place. What about the other patrons’ right to a non-hostile environment? What about the janitors who have to clean up semen? (One time, the manager made the patron clean it up) What about my rights as an employee to not have to assist patrons with finding porn if I don’t agree with it? I’m not morally opposed it, it’s just not for me, and I shouldn’t have to help anybody find a midget-horse fetish site if I don’t want to.

By: K

Mon, 09 May 2011 01:58:59 +0000

Thank you so much for posting this. I see no good reason that we are not allowed to ban porn in our libraries. Sometimes ALA & freedom of information advocates take things way too far.

By: me too

me too — Fri, 06 May 2011 22:56:36 +0000

Porn Sucks. And librarians who are afraid to stand against it suck too. There are plenty of adult shops — probably in your town. Why not go get a job there if you want to dish out “protected” speech.

By: NobamaLady

NobamaLady — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:48:55 +0000

Why, just the other day I was at the local Pamida getting extra paper plates for the church picnic and oh my goodness there it was- a magazine with the whole cast of that awful anti-American, anti-Christian TV show Glee! Did you know they have one of them homosexual boys as one of the stars? My niece Linda Lou watches that show, and I told her in no uncertain terms that she should avoid things like that, as it will lead her astray from her proper upbringing and the Lord!
And then later that day, I went to the town public library to pick up the 7th Heaven DVD I had reserved and a couple Harlequin romance novels, and there was that same magazine! My stars, what is this town coming to? Next Sunday when I see Councilman Johnston at services I’m going to give him a piece of my mind about that filth, and tell him that the worst thing this town ever did was lift that ban on dancing!

By: Spekkio

Spekkio — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:11:00 +0000

Not going to write a book, just a few quick points:

1. Only men enjoy “sick” porn? AL, as an academic librarian, you should know better than to engage in generalizations. I’m not sure I’m keen on the word “sick,” for that matter. What consenting adults do in private is their business so long as nobody’s judgment is impaired (e.g. drugs, alcohol) and no one is harmed (i.e. nobody is permanently scarred or damaged).

2. We have a porn definition – at least in the United States. I would say it’s just short of the Miller test…the material is about sex and it doesn’t have any value aside from sex. Ta-Da!

By: Randal Powell

Randal Powell — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:24:18 +0000

AL, the filtering software currently available, not only isn’t perfect, it isn’t even good.

By: JimBob

JimBob — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:01:30 +0000

I left a position because of porn. It was a medical library and a member of the public came and printer out pages of photos of homosexual porn. I complained to my manager that I didn’t want to work in such conditions, and they told me that they would not do anything. Of course they said it is a nice wishy-washy, liberal, fence-riding way. You know, no committing to moral principles, and making it seem like everything is okay. The problem runs deeper in our society than libraries. People are immoral, and we the limb-wristed public let them get their way. People tend to think of porn as a children issue. Well, I happen to be a married male who was challenged with a long addiction with porn and masturbation. I got over it over ten years ago, but it is a continually temptation. We can’t forget that people out there are tempted to sin by seeing other people watch this stuff. I would say that 99.9% of the people engaging into public (not to mention private) viewing of porn are engaged in a destructive and potentially addictive which is aberrant and should not be tolerated in libraries. SO few people live by a clear moral code, and have a clear concept of what life is about, so we end up having little no clarity in our policy, and of course evil finds the crack and exploits. Some places embrace evil, an of course good people hate those places. The quickest way to destroy a good library is through porn.

By: Annoyed Librarian

Annoyed Librarian — Thu, 05 May 2011 22:02:10 +0000

Randal, you’re letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. The twopointopians would be very unhappy with you.

By: Randal Powell

Randal Powell — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:05:19 +0000

AL, you better get to work creating filtering software that only filters porn and nothing else, because one doesn’t exist.

By: Cattycataloger

Cattycataloger — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:44:30 +0000

I’m throwing in my 2 cents worth here. I went to McDonalds about 2 weeks ago. I was appalled at what I saw. There sat a couple engaged in foreplay! Yes foreplay. His legs were drapped over her leg. His hands ran up and down her torso and the lips of the 2 were engaged in extremely sensual kissing.

Had I been alone. I would have just stood in front of them. I figure they needed folks to watch to get really aroused and I’m a helpful sort; however, I had my 8 year old daughter with me. She is on the Autism spectrum and though extremely high functioning she has a difficulty with understanding appropriate behavior.

So I guess my argument here is AL porn is out on the streets. The manager of McDonalds took his sweet time about going and looking into the matter. By then the couple had heard me complaining (I have a voice that carries). They seperated to a barely acceptable distance. And he came to me ?ING my complaint. I loudly informed him that they heard my complaints and took care of the matter themselves. In the end that McDonalds lost my busy. I wonder how many of our public libraries loose support due to this protection of viewing explicit materials. Sorry. Just disagreeing that you can’t find porn anywhere but in libraries.