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Some 58.6% of the 9,522 people who voted with their mice during an online poll conducted from April 24 to April 30 at the USA Today Web site clicked their support of unfettered Internet access at their libraries.
The choice that came in a distant second (drawing approval from 23.3% of respondents) was the filtering of Internet access for all patrons, regardless of age—an option that Loudoun County (Va.) Library trustees approved last fall and that free-speech advocates are currently challenging in the federal courts. Even less popular (14.5%) was the installation of blocking software only in the children's area of library facilities.
Whatever configuration respondents preferred, the poll made one patron expectation quite apparent: Only a scant 3.3% felt that the Internet did not belong in libraries.
Posted May 4, 1998.
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