Helping the Difficult Library Patron by Katz Linda S.;

Author:Katz, Linda S.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Secondly, in addressing the issues of controversial material available over the Internet we will consider specifically the area of pornography, although other issues related to material available via the Internet, i.e., chat, e-mail and the concerns about plagiarism are also problems. In 1996 the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) reported in their SPEC Flyer #218 on a survey of 119 institutions to gather information on policies related to the use of electronic information. Thirty-nine institutions responded. Although a small sample, the majority of the respondents indicated they had knowledge of problems with computer usage at their institution. Twenty respondents cited knowledge of harassment incidents (e-mail, unsolicited sending of pornography, etc.), 15 mentioned incidents of pornography and 7 noted incidents related to freedom of speech. Comments indicated people were concerned with the use of computers for other than the posted educational purposes, i.e., chat rooms, e-mail and the viewing of pornography.

E-mail and chat have become a thorny issue in the academic library due to the difficulty of distinguishing between personal use and scholarly communication (i.e., chatting with friends versus participating in a chat required of an online course). In many cases, the only recourse is a policy stating that machines are to be used for course related research and communication. Other libraries simply decide they do not want to be in the position of judging whether a patron’s use of e-mail or chat is appropriate and simply accept it as a “legitimate use of the technology” (Guernsey, 1998). Where e-mail becomes more of a concern is where it is used to send harassing or threatening messages to others. This is generally covered by an institution’s speech code and harassment rules rather than specific library policies and procedures.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.