Carol Stanley and Jerry Stovall have written a compelling blog (only available in print through the Georgia Library Quarterly, vol. 45, number 1, Spring 2008, pgs 5-8) detailing the frustrations felt by librarians who are supposed to be helping patrons find information.
The librarians of the Technical College System of Georgia are dealing with the dichotomy of working in an academic library with a filter on internet access.
How can this be? How many universities in the Ivy League (or even the Georgia Board of Regents league) would stand for limiting access to information with a filter on the internet?
The students in the technical college system are being denied access to information under an arbitrary system implemented by the state of Georgia to prevent government employees from using the internet to "play" rather than work.
The managers of government employees can't manage therefore college students are denied access to information....and how is this helpful in a free academic environment?
It's what technical college librarians deal with as the powers that be push the technical colleges with one hand to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools yet with the other hand deny access to academically useful resources available through the web with the filter Websense.
Read all about it in the Georgia Library Quarterly.
Oh, Carol and Jerry mention the View from the Library in their article on pages 6 and 8 of the GLQ. They can read this now...... Thanks for the mention!
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
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