Talked to a librarian in Minneapolis who said they hide certain local news articles from the public computers

She told me they get flagged by a filter that blocks 'controversial content' but really it's just stories about city budget cuts or police funding, and now I'm wondering how many other libraries do the same thing?

3 comments

3 Comments

barbarab5612d ago

38 out of 42 libraries in Hennepin County use the same content filter, its a program called SmartFilter. The thing is those filters are supposed to block porn and malware, not local news. I ran into this exact mess at my library in St Paul last year. What worked for me was asking the reference desk to manually unblock the URL on the spot, they can do it in like 30 seconds if you push a little. Another trick is using your phone hotspot or the library's wifi on your own device instead of their locked down computers. Also look up your state's library code of ethics, most states have rules against filtering out political content.

abby_henderson12d ago

My friend Sarah ran into this same filter thing at the Duluth library last spring. She was trying to look up a city council meeting recap about road funding cuts and the screen just went blank with a "restricted content" message. The librarian whispered that the filter tags anything with "budget dispute" as potentially offensive, which is just wild for a public resource.

jordancoleman12d ago

Man, that SmartFilter thing makes so much sense now. I bet those programs are designed to just nuke anything with keywords like "budget" or "funding" or "police" without anyone thinking about how it hits local news. It's almost like they're trying to keep people from finding out about stuff that actually matters to their own town. And barbarab56 is right, those filters are supposed to block the bad stuff, not stuff about potholes or school funding. The manual unblock trick is good but most people won't even know to ask, they'll just think the article is gone forever. What's the point of having a public library if the public can't even read about what their city council is doing with their tax money?