Seems like everyone is abuzz about the librarian who was fired for reporting the guy viewing child pornography on the library computers. This is really a tough issue in different ways.

She did disobey her supervisor’s instructions. Yet, the guy was looking at CHILD porn. Not that adult porn is exactly better, but there are laws against buying child porn, looking at it, creating it, etc. I don’t know what CA’s laws are on the matter, but if the guy got arrested, the police must have thought he was doing something wrong as well.

The thing I can’t get past is that it was child pornography. This is disgusting and I don’t think that simply telling someone to stop and then notating their record is a strong enough stance. Sure, as a librarians I’m all for protecting free speech and the right to access information, but can’t we do this and still exercise some ethical judgment. It was CHILD PORNOGRAPHY!!! Why are we protecting some deviants right to view something that is so obviously wrong.

Okay….I’m calm again.

As to the librarian getting fired, she did disobey her supervisor. But was what she did so wrong? Sometimes when the people who should make good decisions are too weak to do so, it takes someone with convictions to make a change. I hope that this incident will at least make that library (or library system) carefully consider how they handle these types of situations in the future.

How far do we have to let the public go? Have we went too far in trying to protect everyone’s rights?

(These are my personal views and are not meant to represent the views of my employer or any other entity I may be affiliated with.)