Minneapolis Gets Serious
about Library Porn
The Minneapolis City Council discussed a resolution May 5 that would encourage the city’s public library to adopt an Internet-use policy similar to that of twin city St. Paul, which forbids the use of library computers to “display graphics that are obscene or harmful to minors.” Council Member Kathy Thurber drafted the resolution in the wake of a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission May 3 by seven Minneapolis Public Library staff members who charged the downtown library with being a “hostile, offensive, palpably unlawful working environment” because of the blatant viewing and printing out of pornographic images by library users. Staffers had publicly complained about conditions in February in a letter to the newspaper.
The May 5 Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that, although the council has no authority over the library system, Thurber was concerned that the library’s inaction on the matter could hurt a $120-million proposal to build a new central library downtown.
MPL Spokesperson Kristi Gibson told reporters that the library board would look at tightening its Internet policy at its next board meeting May 17. In the meantime, she said that patrons will be required to sign up for 30-minute increments and show identification. In addition, police officers have agreed to “do a walk-through with us and get a sense of what’s going on at the library” with regard to obscenity statutes, Gibson said.
Posted May 8, 2000.
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