YAKIMA HERALD
Ross Courtney | February 6, 2013

A teacher here has called for two books he considers inappropriate to be removed from school libraries.

Richard Korb, a social studies teacher at Prosser High School, has formally challenged the books for depictions of child abuse and profanity and what he says is the promotion of homosexuality.

It’s the first time in at least eight years that books have been formally challenged in the Prosser School District, said Mary Snitily, assistant superintendent.

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UPDATES:
“Prosser book committee gives OK to argued novel ‘A Child Called It’”
(Tri-City Herald | Ty Beaver | February 6, 2013)

“Prosser School District committee votes to keep book in library”
(Tri-City Herald | Ty Beaver | February 8, 2013)

YAKIMA HERALD REPUBLIC
Dan Catchpole | September 26, 2012

Yakima Valley Regional Library started blocking pornographic websites from its computers Wednesday after community members petitioned for tighter controls.

Library officials said a recent U.S. District Court ruling opened the door for them to be more selective about what content patrons can access while using a library’s computers.

Community members petitioned the library’s board of trustees for the policy change following a 22-year-old man’s arrest in August for allegedly masturbating while at one of the library’s computers. The board voted 5-0 to restrict online content at its Monday meeting.

The filters are works in progress, and will be reviewed and adjusted as needed, library Director Kim Hixson said. “We moved really quickly. We wanted to be proactive.”

But the new filters would not have prevented the August incident, because the man was not looking at content that would be considered pornographic, she said.

A local television station, however, reported last month that the man had been looking at sexually explicit material, which was not true, Hixson said.

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THE DAILY WORLD
Steven Friederich | August 3, 2012

Would it matter to you if your public library decides that some content can’t be viewed on computers within the library?

The Timberland Regional Library District’s Board of Trustees is considering changing its Internet filtering policy and at least two Lewis County board members are pushing for the district to filter the content on every public computer in all of the libraries. The board has seven trustees and each county in the system — Grays Harbor, Pacific, Lewis, Mason and Thurston — are represented on the board. They are appointed by the county commissioners of the five-county region.

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KIRKLAND PATCH
Annie Archer | February 10, 2012

Eastside Cool Mommies, a Redmond-based organization for mothers, is miffed at the Kirkland Branch of the King County Library System, saying it was turned down from booking the library public meeting room. KCLS officials say the group’s event does not fit with library policy.

Gia Parsons, who tried to book the Kirkland meeting room for March for Eastside Cool Mommies, said she was told by the library staff that “they are ‘cracking down’ on meeting room use by private groups, mommy groups included

The main issue appears to be whether the group was allowing the public into the meeting, which library policy requires.

“They did not give me a specific reason but stated that there was a high demand for room use,” Parsons wrote Patch in an email. She added that she has never turned down anyone who has asked to join or asked questions.

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