After Child Porn Incident, Tulare County Librarian Says Policy Change Coming

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 03/24/2008

• Library will spell out policy re child porn
• “Miscommunication” between staffer & supervisor
• Investigation pending

Tulare County Librarian (Visalia, CA) Brian Lewis can’t say much about the controversy that’s flared up in the last three weeks, in which a probationary library assistant contends that the loss of her job was connected to an unauthorized report to police that a library patron was looking at child pornography. After all, the library’s response is still under investigation. But he did tell LJ that Brenda Biesterfeld called the cops on her own time, which is her right, and that the library has agreed to amend its policies to provide better guidance to staff and patrons.

The library’s current Internet policy warns, “Therefore, customers are not to visit sites whose graphical images are “sexually explicit”… nor any sites that violate state or federal law. Customers viewing a site that meets the aforementioned Policy’s definition of inappropriate material will be asked to log out of the site.” Child pornography, however, is per se illegal, and cops should be called, according to library law expert Mary Minow. “Our policy did not directly deal with child pornography,” Lewis said, “so county counsel is working on putting together a policy to make a few changes so that the definition of child pornography is in there.”

The County Board of Supervisors said an internal review determined that the decision to release Biesterfeld from probation was not connected to her call to the police. “There was a misunderstanding between Ms. Biesterfeld and her supervisor, most definitely,” Lewis acknowledged, saying he couldn’t go into details. Biesterfeld has said her supervisor told her not to call the police.

Biesterfeld has said that her previous evaluation had been positive; she has not yet given the county permission to release employment records. “I guess the lessons are to review all of your policies on a regular basis to make sure that they’re up to date and germane to whatever situation might arise,” Lewis said, “and sometimes timing is awful, but it is what is.” The county has launched “an independent investigation performed under the oversight of a judicial official” to evaluate the sequence of events.