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(AP) RACINE, Wis. -- A registered sex offender is headed back to prison after a woman at the Racine Public Library saw him using a computer to view child pornography and reported him to the staff. William C. Norris, 58, of Racine, sentenced this week to five years in prison, previously served a sentence for second-degree sexual assault of a child and was out on bond after being accused in 2005 of violating the state's sex offender registry. The library incident happened a year ago and resulted in four counts against Norris of possession of child pornography. He pleaded guilty...

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - Federal authorities are seeking information about the effectiveness of entertainment industry efforts to keep adult products out of kids' hands as customers migrate to the Internet and mobile services from brick-and-mortar stores, according to showbiz executives. The data will form part of the Federal Trade Commission's congressionally mandated biennial report on the way the entertainment industry markets adult fare. FTC spokeswoman Jackie Disdul said the commission has yet to set a schedule for the report's release. "The last time they did the report, online content was barely a glimmer in anyone's eye," said one industry executive....

KIDS, PORN AND POLITICS Sunday, September 10, 2006 David Reinhard, Assoc. Ed. The Oregonian Editorial Rob Brading had a chance to stand up for children and blew it -- twice. The Democratic challenger to House Speaker Karen Minnis had a chance to champion the common-sense notion that children are different than adults and said nothing -- twice. Brading had a chance to protect kids from pornography when they're in Multnomah County public libraries and did nothing -- twice. First, as a member of the Multnomah County Library Advisory Board, he voted for the county to join with the American Civil...

The dean of library services at the University of the Incarnate Word has canceled the library's subscription to the New York Times to protest articles exposing a secret government program that monitors international financial transactions in the hunt for terrorists. "Since no one elected the New York Times to determine national security policy, the only action I know to register protest for their irresponsible action (treason?) is to withdraw support of their operations by canceling our subscription as many others are doing," Mendell D. Morgan Jr. wrote Wednesday in an e-mail to library staffers. "If enough do, perhaps they will...

After fighting for nearly a year to keep details of a counterterrorism investigation secret, the federal government has abandoned efforts to obtain library records in Connecticut, concluding that the implied threat had no merit. The decision was hailed yesterday as a victory by the four Connecticut librarians who mounted one of the few known challenges to the nation's strengthened antiterrorism law when they filed a lawsuit last summer objecting to the government's request for patron records and its insistence on absolute secrecy. Government officials, in seeking to explain why something that was once a matter of national security was no...

While the debate rages over what to do with the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and whether we need a new central library for the city, a larger concern is being ignored: Internet porn at the library. When I walked into the West End Branch Library on 24th Street NW last week, several men were sitting at the computers, looking at hard-core pornography on the Internet. Meanwhile, children on the other side of the room were also using computers. One child was running around behind the men, who were studiously observing the most intimate parts of a woman's body...

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is a division of the American Library Association that likes to offer sexual advice for teens (check: Healthy Relationships for Teens). One of the web sites they recommend (under Resources for Teens: Sexuality and Sexual Behavior) is the Coalition for Positive Sexuality. The organization can be also found at Wikipedia. Parents of teens, meet the CPS. It was designed for “teens who are sexually active now or just thinking about having sex.” So, next time you talk to your teen about sex, tell him to “Just Say Yes”: Just Say Yes is about...

During the lazy, long, hot days of summer, which activity would you rather see your son or daughter engaged in – playing a video game or reading a book? A silly question, right? After all, nearly every parent will say, "Reading a book." But whether that's truly the better activity depends on what book your child is reading. And as I've told readers of this column before, plenty of books designed for today's pre-teens and teenagers undermine the traditional moral values most parents struggle to teach their children. This time of year, kids of all ages come home with...

A renewed effort by several members of the American Library Association's governing council would sever all ties with the Boy Scouts of America until the youth organization stops "discriminating" against avowed atheists and homosexuals. In 1998, the governing council of the ALA, the world's largest library organization, condemned the Boy Scouts over its policies, but a WorldNetDaily investigation reveals activists quietly are planning to take action at the association's annual convention in June. The renewed effort is led by Mark Rosenzweig, formerly an official archivist with the U.S. Communist Party and a chief defender of Fidel Castro in the ALA...

Today I called my local small town library which is staffed by wonderful people. My 11 year old son was with me and we were calling to renew his two library books. The librarian said that he actually had six books out and several were overdue. I asked her which ones were out and her statement was: I cannot tell you because of your son's right to privacy. I thought she was joking. Then I became angry. I later spoke to the Head of the Library Board who told me that he was equally shocked that there was such a...

When writer Marcia Segelstein headed to the bookstore to scout out books for her 12-year-old, she wasn’t sure what to expect. But she certainly didn’t expect rampant drinking, drug use, profanity, and explicit descriptions of sex and nudity. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what she found. Segelstein’s daughter had been clamoring to read the Gossip Girl series, which “‘all’ of her friends were reading,” she said. After seeing what was in the books, Segelstein was floored. But a school librarian confirmed, “They’re very popular among sixth and seventh graders.” Even worse, the librarian added, “Some parents are so happy that their kids...

(AgapePress) - A proposed bill in the Oklahoma Legislature would require public libraries that receive state funds to remove materials containing sexually explicit content or homosexual themes from general reading areas.The proposed law easily passed a State House panel last week and now heads to the full House for a vote. The bill would withhold state funds from public libraries that do not put objectionable material in a special place. Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy, says the bill is reasonable."All it does is remove [the material] from, basically, an accidental...

On March 10, parts of the Patriot Act expire again. Section 215, most famous for the alleged threat it poses to library patrons ... doesn't single out libraries but relates to official requests for "... books, records, ... etc.". The provision is not known to have been invoked yet .... To hear the ALA talk, librarians are the last bulwark defending our most cherished civil liberties against government assault. Yet two recent examples show again that self-anointed guardians of the public good can be very selective about the people, and rights, they choose to protect. One example came from Newton,...

OCALA, Fla. -- A 50-year-old classic novel about forbidden love is shaking things up in Marion County. The controversy centers on the book "Lolita" and whether it's obscene under today's standards, WESH 2 News reported. "Lolita" is a famous novel full of pages and pages of sexually explicit material about pedophilia. "I believe that you, at least hypothetically, could read this book and consider it obscene," said Terry Blaes, of Dunnellon. She challenged the Marion County Commission to determine whether they should pull "Lolita" from public library shelves, as they have the right to do so. "I want you to...

Controversies over books in public libraries -- mostly school libraries -- have been around for decades but a new round of protests by parents is breaking out in Maryland, Virginia, California, Arkansas and other states. With the introduction of a new genre of literature and the presence of the Internet, this battle has taken some new twists. Moreover, much of the usual propaganda promulgated by the American Library Association (ALA) regarding "censorship" and "book burning" is increasingly falling on deaf ears. It’s a dirty little secret that the librarians of today are far removed from the prim and proper characterization...

A senior at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth says he was visited at his parents’ home by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security who were investigating why he had requested a book by former Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong through interlibrary loan. The student, who has asked university officials to shield his identity, told two UMD history professors that the incident took place in late October or early November after he attempted to obtain a copy of the first English edition of the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, published in Beijing in 1966 and popularly known in...

A staffer at the LaPorte County (Ind.) Public Library’s Coolspring branch received a one-week suspension for spending too much time attempting to rescue a squirrel trapped in the library’s ceiling. Cindee Goetz said in the December 1 Michigan City (Ind.) News-Dispatch that when a company hired by the library switched from using a non-kill trap to a kill trap, she asked a friend who owns a humane animal-removal business to capture the squirrel. Goetz said she was then suspended without pay for “not giving the library its just due.” She told the newspaper, “They said I went around the chain...

(Washington-AP, Updated 7:50 PM) _ Connecticut libraries lost an emergency Supreme Court appeal on Friday in their effort to be freed from a gag order and participate in a congressional debate over the Patriot Act. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denied the appeal and offered an unusually detailed explanation of her decision. Ginsburg said the American Civil Liberties Union had made reasonable arguments on behalf of its client, identified in a filing as the Library Connection, an association of libraries in Connecticut. However, Ginsburg said that the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should be given time to consider...

Libraries and schools throughout the country are ready once again to observe Banned Books Week. It's that special time each year when some in the library profession point an accusing finger at parents, especially Christians or conservatives who might dare to question the value or appropriateness of certain materials available to youth. For 25 years since its inception, Banned Books Week has been warning America: "Beware of the ignorance and repression of censors! They will deprive us all of valuable knowledge and freedom." Setting aside any danger that the government might ban valuable materials, which is not happening in any...

"Banishment" from a Public Library? August 20, 2005 I recently received a letter from a local Public Library that was not unexpected. Over the years I have sought to educate the public with regard to the murder of the preborn. Public libraries are a great place to disperse information. In most Public Libraries you can find books with graphic nudity, perversion, introductions to the sodomite lifestyle and the like. The American Library Association will let most anything pass as "good literature" and they raise their voice against "censorship" if ever a "prudish" individual questions a selection in the collection of...