Clawson Library Board Votes to Adopt New Internet Safety Policy

The Blair Memorial Library Board on Tuesday unanimously voted to adopt a new Internet safety policy to better comply with federal guidelines enacted to protect children.

A small number of computers which are only available for staff to use will be outfitted with filtering software designed to automatically keep children under the age of 18 from viewing images which are deemed inappropriate.

Library director Elizabeth Gulick said that as part of an extensive renovation project in 2010 which saw the Clawson library double the number of public computers from eight to 16, Smart Access Management (SAM) software has since been utilized. 

"SAM filters the computers according to the age given on the user's library card, which is part of our registration process," Gulick said.

SAM's restrictions can be eased for the purpose of research at the discretion of a librarian, Gulick continued, however, the same restrictions have not been in place for staff computers.

"Since our policy was enacted, we've always said that you must be able to unblock as necessary," Gulick said. "This most recent change won't affect the public, just the staff."

Now that the new policy is in place, Gulick said, the library should be eligible to receive federal grants as mandated by the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000.

CIPA is designed to restrict federal funding based on requirements for use of filtering policies and technology, according to the American Library Association.

"In our case, it's less than $1,000 that we're now eligible to receive, but for a small library, especially in tough times, that's not anything to sneeze at," Gulick said.

According to a report from the library, 367 people used its computers in March.