Filtering the Internet

We at ALIA have recently issued a media release drawing attention to the recently-completed report of a survey of filtering in public libraries. The survey is the third we have conducted since 2002, and these surveys track the way in public library approaches to managing use of the internet have evolved over the past five years. For me, nostalgia is one of the responses to the issues raised.

I was involved in the introduction of the internet into public libraries in Victoria from the very beginning (1995), when Vicnet rolled out public library access to Victorians, actively supported by the Victorian (Kennett) Government. I was also a member of the Australian Broadcasting Authority's Children and Content Online Task Force which in 1998 reported on online content and its issues for children. From 1999 until its recent (mid-2007) incorporation into ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority), I was a member of the Board of NetAlert Ltd, Australia's internet safety organisation.

Looking back recently at the 1998 report that we put together, I was gratified that the recommendations of the Task Force still seem reasonable, and a good guide on how to handle children's access to the Internet. All the things I still want to say are there - the Internet is for children too, free access to online content must be safeguarded for adults, parental supervision and guidance are the key strategies, and filtering is a supplementary approach. The practical, commonsense - and principled - approach we took then is still valid. The values are clearly stated and shared by Australians generally. There has been a consistent and balanced approach taken, with broad support, for the past decade. It would be a pity if the issues now became politicised.

Internet Freedom

Phillip Roberts, in a recent post to the IAMEMS list, points out a forthcoming report on global web censorship. The report is the work of the Open Net Initiative (ONI), which is a partnership of four universities - Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Toronto. The report is titled Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering and the New Scientist has a recent article about it. A growing number of countries filter access to particular parts of the Internet, and the number of countries which do this appears to be increasing.

Amnesty International in the UK is running a webcast on 6 June from 18.30 to 21.00 UK time entitled Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing: the Struggle for Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace. You can check it out in advance.

Open Net has a couple of interesting features. There is a map showing which countries do block or filter Internet content, and a URL search facility, so that you can find out whether a site is blocked somewhere and, if so, where. It has some flaws, but it is interesting.

This should all be core business for librarians. If we believe in the free flow of information, we certainly do not believe in country-level restrictions on access to the world's major information source, the Internet. What do you think?

Values

One of the matters I mentioned in my 100 word statement was values. I suggested that the key to our future is our core values. This is not just a statement of the obvious. Like other professions, library professionals have values which are integral to what they do. We handle information, and our primary value is the free flow of information.

From this core value come a great number of our activities as a profession. These activities are a very strong reason why libraries and library professionals should support their professional association. They include our long-standing opposition to censorship, our approach to copyright, our support for free access to libraries and cultural institutions more widely, and of course our strong support for libraries as an open public institution maintained for everyone and accessible to everyone.

How do these values translate into the Internet age? Our statement of values does not specifically refer to related online values, such as net neutrality and equity of access to online information, and maybe we should be thinking about these too. In doing this, we would have strong support from other groups like the Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU), Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) and for that matter the Australian Computer Society (ACS).

It would be good if we could start to form the kinds of close connections with these bodies that we already have with the paper-descended associations like us - archivists, records managers, school libraries. Of course, none of us is limited to the paper business nowadays.

(My very varied Easter activities included a meeting on Tuesday involving Philip Argy (president of the ACS) and Holly Raiche (executive officer of ISOC-AU). And my first ever live rugby league game . . . Newcastle Knights and Melbourne Storm . . . another story altogether).