The president of the Iowa Library Association is critical of a bill three Republican state senators are pushing that would restrict access to pornographic materials in Iowa libraries. Iowa Library Association president Susan Craig of Iowa City says forcing libraries to install internet filters on computers that screen out pornographic websites is too “onerous.” Craig says small libraries, in particular, do not have the funding or the expertise to buy the filters and install them.
“At the federal level, courts have ruled that if filters are installed, the libraries must be able to turn those filters off at the request of an adult patron,” Craig says. “This is certainly a burden on library staff and requires some sophisticated technology that often is not available in some of our smaller communities in Iowa.”
The bill under consideration in the state senate also would force libraries to impose new restrictions on R-rated movies so kids under the age of 17 could not check those movies out. Craig says the Library Association believes those decisions should be made at the local level. “We have a great system in Iowa of public library boards that are the policy-making authorities for their particular libraries,” Craig says.
Legislators also complain that kids are able to check out movies with adult sexual content like “The 40-year-old Virgin” and “American Pie,” but Craig says her group believes libraries can be “more flexible” than movie theaters are in their admission policies. “The parent should be monitoring and making decisions about what they allow or don’t allow their children to do,” Craig says. “If a parent has allowed a 15-year-old to check out materials from the library and those materials include R-rated movies, we think that’s a decision the parent should be able to make.”