tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-221608472011-04-30T20:41:39.977-05:00MJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00400134281016770708noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22160847.post-1139437704100003132006-02-08T17:09:00.000-05:002006-02-09T19:28:46.610-05:00<strong>Objective of the Web log: </strong><br /><p>While compiling a consumer health website for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community at my hospital, I grew extremely frustrated. Each time I tried to visit a really good website, I was presented, instead, the institution's filtering page with a message "politely" telling me that this site was filtered or blocked due to <em>lesbian, gay, bisexual issues. </em>What issues? Health issues? As I continued, I discovered that some very pertinent health information sites were all blocked by our institution's filtering system. In fact, 57% of all the legitimate LGBT health sites I tried to access were blocked. It occured to me that this must be happening at other institutions as well, so I decided to take a poll. The poll has turned into a nation-wide survey from which I'm hoping to learn a little more about the experiences of other hospital and public librarians - and to know how they have handled the experience. Luckily, I've been able to influence some change in our hospital to change the filtering program to accept these important medical sites on the library computers. I hope to go a bit further throughout the institution.</p><p>Internet filtering programs applied to institutional networks often prohibit access to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered literature or websites in the workplace. This blog aims to elicit comments of hospital and public librarians regarding actions they have taken to eliminate such information from being blocked on institutional websites which employ a web filtering system such as DynaComm i:filter, iPrism, SurfControl, WebSense, X-Stop, or any other program which blocks certain materials from appearing on institutional computers.<br /><br /><strong>Survey: </strong><br />Please also take a look at a survey I am distributing which consists of five questions accompanied by a set of 11 websites to be tested from a hospital-networked computer. Results from this survey are expected to show that institutions who employ web filters (such as Websense) in order to restrict "Gay or Lesbian or Bisexual Interest" subject matter from networked computers are inadvertently blocking valuable LGBT health information from being viewed within the hosptial setting, thereby limiting much-needed resources to this population. The survey is available in Adobe PDF or in Word and you can test the links directly from the form. Please share your results in this forum!</p><br />PDF: <a href="http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~libsurv/librarysurvey1.pdf">http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~libsurv/librarysurvey1.pdf</a><br />Word: <a href="http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~libsurv/librarysurvey.doc">http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~libsurv/librarysurvey.doc</a><br /><br />I will present the findings of this study at the Medical Library Association Annual Conference in May 2006. Thanks for your input! [all personal information will be kept in strict confidence]<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/22160847-113943770410000313?l=webnonsense.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>MJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00400134281016770708noreply@blogger.com5