Alex just IMed me to tell me that a local radio station was talking this morning about a Detroit area library that stopped offering internet access to their patrons. I did a quick search of the Detroit Free Press site and it didn't take me long to find the article:
Library pulls plug on Internet access
This makes me very sad because the patrons of this community will essentially suffer. Internet access is a vital library service and if your library either doesn't have it or decides to cut it off for any reason, they are hurting their community more than helping it. Also, I firmly believe that it is not the right of the library (or governement agency or what have you) to decide what is acceptable for patrons to access. Libraries are institutations that allow people free access to information, this library has failed by cutting off a large portion of that access to their patrons. Have we forgotten the Library Bill of Rights?
Yeah, I heard that on the radio this morning too! Crazy ehh?!