Shhh! And cover your computer screen: librarians take on unwanted roles as Internet censors after Supreme Court ruling.

You believe the stereotype perhaps: Librarians are somber souls who stand up from behind their desks only long enough to hush chatty patrons or to dole out whispered words of advice. The reality, of course, is that today's librarians are often pressed into service as baby-sitters, teachers or travel agents and, yes, they may even be called upon to help find a book now and then. Now add Internet censor to the number of hats they must wear. This past June, the United States Supreme Court ruled that libraries that receive federal funding must outfit their public computers with software that protects patrons younger than 17 years of age from adult-oriented material on the Internet. Although libraries must install some type of Web filter, the law allows adult computer users to ask librarians to temporarily disable the filter.

Libraries, led by the American Library Association (ALA), had challenged the federal Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000, arguing that it was too broad and that Web filters frequently blocked Web sites with no objectionable material on them. (Such software might, for instance, block all material on breast cancer in an attempt to block pornography containing the word "breast.")

A three-judge federal panel overturned CIPA in 2002, ruling that constitutionally protected speech would be blocked by the Web filtering. The United States Justice Department, however, appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, which reversed the ruling by the three-judge panel and reinstated the law. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has now set a July 1, 2004, deadline for libraries to comply with CIPA.

According to the ALA, more than $1 billion in federal funds has been distributed to libraries since 1998 through the education-rate (E-rate) discount program or in Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants. Both would be off-limits to libraries that fall out of compliance with CIPA laws.

The FCC's E-rate program allows qualified schools and libraries to receive 20 to 90 percent discounts for telecommunications services, Internet access and the necessary wiring. Libraries in poorer areas get higher discounts. The FCC, using funds raised from telecommunications carriers, pays the difference between the discounted and full rates for services such as telephone service and high-speed Internet connections.

Even after it lost its challenge of CIPA, the ALA demanded that Web filter creators be explicit about what is blocked and what criteria are being used. So what is a library to do? Many libraries are already adjusting their Internet-use policies and are shopping for products that will filter Internet traffic to the law's satisfaction.

Baltimore's public library system, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, currently does not filter Internet access, "... but we are going to comply," says Carla Hayden, executive director of Enoch Pratt and president of the ALA.

Hayden says well-funded libraries in affluent areas may choose to leave their computers unfiltered because federal funds account for a small part of their budgets. On the other hand, libraries in poorer areas that qualify for high E-rate discounts would have no choice but to comply, she added.

For example, federal E-rate discounts represent $2 million of Baltimore's $30 million budget, "... and we can't walk away from that," says Hayden. She notes that the ALA, which has 65,000 members, would sponsor seminars to teach librarians how to manage their computer networks "in a post-CIPA world."

As of late 2003, the Brooklyn Public Library, one of three public library systems in New York City, had not filtered the Internet either. Some computers at the BPL's Central Library have privacy filters that prevent anyone other than the person in front of the monitor from viewing the screen. Passersby see only a blank screen. A BPL spokeswoman says the library's board of directors would soon decide on what kind of Web filtering solution to use at the system's 60 locations.

The road to an enforceable Children's Internet Protection Act has been a long one, but for public libraries, the road to compliance--and a chance to hang onto federal funds--starts now.

Robert S. Anthony is a syndicated technology writer living in Brooklyn, New York.

Web Filter Software for Home and Business Use

If you're interested in monitoring Internet use in your household of place of business, consider the following software on the market:

* BioNet Systems's Net Nanny (www.netnanny.com) filters the Web by using a regularly updated blacklist of blocked sites. Armed with a password, librarians and parents can disable the software, allow access to a preapproved list or allow entry into a blocked site on a one-by-one basis. Net Nanny retails for $39.95, but BioNet Systems LLC offers volume pricing on this software to businesses, which lowers the per unit price to $15 each for orders of 100 or more.

* SurfControl (www.surfcontrol.com) offers its CyberPatrol (www.cyberpatrol.com) Web filter for parents, librarians and businesses and has an array of Web and E-mail filtering products for corporate networks. CyberPatrol can also filter content in chat rooms and in Web-based E-mail and limit time or block access to programs on the computer itself. CyberPatrol retails $39 for a single PC and includes a year's worth of online updates to its blocked-sites file. Software licenses for networks of 5, 25, 50 or 100 workstations are priced at $185, $825, $1,550 and $2,925, respectively.

* Elex Technologies, Inc. recently introduced Photo No-No! (www.photonono.com), a product it bills as the world's first artificial intelligence pornographic photo filter. The product retails for $29.95.

* Members of AOL Time Warner's America Online can make use of AOL's internal Web filter. AOL's Parental Controls (www.aol.com/info/parentcontrol.html)) allows members to manage their access to the Web and to parts of the AOL service.