Tahlequah Daily Press | No plans for chat room ban at local libraries

Tahlequah Daily Press: "No plans for chat room ban at local libraries

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By SEAN KENNEDY Press Staff Writer
Monday, May 23, 2005 2:18 PM CDT

A new policy banning people from going into online chat rooms at one library in Oklahoma is not necessarily spreading to other libraries across the state.

Marilyn Hinshaw, executive director for Eastern Oklahoma District Library System - of which both Tahlequah Public Library and Hulbert Community Library are a part - said there were no plans to prohibit patrons from entering chat rooms at local branches.

'We have an Internet Policy that discusses what is appropriate for patrons to do while on the Internet,' said Hinshaw. 'We do allow chat room access, but if we get a report from someone in the library that someone is doing something illegal on our computers, we will investigate.'

The Enid library board voted to ban patrons from using chat rooms starting July 1, after police informed library officials in February that sexual predators may have used computers there to set up meetings with underage targets at the library or nearby.

Police have made no arrests, but have interviewed some possible victims.

Hinshaw said Enid library representatives contacted her after the incident, to find out what kinds of Internet policies other libraries had. She forwarded a copy of the one used by all branches in EODLS.

'The [Enid] city attorney directed her to adopt the no chat room policy,' said Hinshaw. 'I explained to her what we do here. She discussed it with other libraries, but they are an independent library with their own board and policies.'

People who want to access the Internet at any of the EODLS branches must first have a library card, and then sign the Internet user agreement.

Patrons must agree not to do anything illegal while using the library's computers.

'We don't allow people to just take over our facilities for illegal o"