VALPARAISO, Fla. - A Florida Panhandle librarian has been suspended and may be fired by officials upset that a registered sex offender and three boys allegedly used the city library's computers to access pornographic Internet sites.
Sue Martin, head librarian at the Valparaiso Community Library, was suspended with pay and will receive a hearing within 60 days, City Attorney Doug Wyckoff said Thursday.
City Commissioner Robert Billingsley said he will ask the commission to dismiss Martin but declined to elaborate on why he thinks she failed to do enough to keep patrons from using the computers to find pornography.
Hard drives have been removed from the computers and the public has been prohibited from using them until further notice.
Martin does not have a telephone listing under her name, but she wrote a letter to Billingsley, who oversees library matters for the commission, after the sex offender allegedly viewed a pornographic site July 25.
"We continually enforce our policy by monitoring all computers," she wrote. "Any suspicious use is immediately checked by accessing the history of the patrons' Web use. In addition, the staff monitors the patrons' use by 'walkthroughs' of the computer areas."
The library's Internet policy forbids using computers for "illegal or fraudulent activity" or displaying "images which other library users may find offensive to view."
Parents or guardians must sign a responsibility contract before minors can use the computers, acknowledging they are strictly for educational purposes and that it's impossible for staff to restrict access to all controversial materials.
Michael Bushee, 25, was charged with possession of child pornography several days after he allegedly accessed porn on a library computer. Police said they found computer discs, tapes and pictures of child pornography at his home.
Billingsley said Police Chief Joseph Hart a week later told him that three juveniles also had viewed pornographic material on a library computer.
Bob Gorin, coordinator of Okaloosa County's public library cooperative, said each library has its own policy but typically have staff walk by computers and look at sites being visited. Blocking software is available but is easy to get around, Gorin said.
A call to the American Library Association for comment Friday was not immediately returned.
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Information from: Northwest Florida Daily News, http://www.nwfdailynews.com
