Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Library Censorship

A reader found a library in Salem, Missouri blocked her access to sites concerning astrology, occultism & Wicca on their public computers. When she asked for permission to access the sites, the librarian told her she could allow specific sites (no blanket access to specific search terms) and that she would also be obligated to inform the police of the reader's actions.
I can get blocking some content to minors, like stuff about drinking blood & maybe sex magic, but astrology & ancient religions ?
heck, the library probably has dusty old books on these subjects sitting around that they don't even know about.
The real scary part about this is the notion that the librarian felt compelled to inform the police about somebody accessing sites about faith, spirituality & history.

The Hill blogpost here.

4 comments:

Anji said...

It does sound weird. i wonder what the librairian was afraid of. Perhaps being uncovered as a witch of the worst kind?

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Quimbob said...

or a Venusian.....

Mark said...

The Cincinnati library blocked local writer Nathan Singer's webpage even though they carried his book and he was an employee of the library.

I'm proud that my bitching helped get this reversed...although his webpage is dead now.

Quimbob said...

insane - glad that got fixed