At this point, I just wanted to share a couple of personal experiences that have made me think about this issue lately. The first is just a small thing that happened a few weeks ago when I was on vacation in California and visited the local public library to check my email. After I had checked my three email accounts, I tried to log in to MySpace but discovered the library had blocked it. A message popped up on the screen that included the word 'inappropriate.' After a few more minutes, I also discovered that they block Flickr, the photo-sharing site, with the same message. I felt angry about this, but at the same time realized it was not essential for me to visit those particular sites that day. However, this same library also offers free unlimited wi-fi. I was able to go back later in the week and look at whatever sites I wanted on a laptop computer. I believe this raises the issue of different levels of access for people with different financial resources, as well as being a bit inconsistent.
Anyway, the second personal experience I will share is about the only time I have been directly challenged by a patron about materials in the public library. I work at a medium-sized branch library with firm rules about chain of command and who is responsible for dealing with challenges, so when this occurred I was limited in my ability to communicate with the patron - instead, I had to track down the person in charge of the building and direct the patron over there.
A woman had found a graphic novel called She Hulk in the young adult area of our library, and she was upset by the cover image above and wanted to know how we could have that in the library. Something about the fact of the title and the image provoked some degree of internal hilarity in me - however, the patron was angry about this material and I felt unsure of how to deal with it. After I had passed her on to the building head, I listened to the ensuing conversation and learned a lot about how to talk with someone about something like this:
Patron: "Would you read something like this? Why do you have this here?"
Manager: "Well, I personally would probably not choose to read this, but we offer all different sorts of items for people."
The snippet above illustrates what I got out of this conversation - remaining calm, letting the person talk, and listening.
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