the library's Internet use logs. In some cases, library staff or
patrons may directly observe a patron accessing obscenity and
child pornography. Libraries' Internet use logs, however, also
provide libraries with a means of detecting violations of their
Internet use policies. These logs, which can be kept regardless
whether a library uses filtering software, record the URL of
every Web page accessed by patrons. Although ordinarily the logs
do not link particular URLs with particular patrons, it is
possible, using access logs, to identify the patron who viewed
the Web page corresponding to a particular URL, if library staff
discover in the access logs the URL of a Web page containing
obscenity or child pornography. For example, David Biek,
Director of Tacoma Public Library's main branch, testified that
in the course of scanning Internet use logs he has found what
looked like attempts to access child pornography, notwithstanding
the fact that Tacoma uses Websense filtering software. In two
cases, he communicated his findings to law enforcement and turned
over the logs to law enforcement in response to a subpoena.


Once a violation of a library's Internet use policy is
detected through the methods described above, a library may
either issue the patron a warning, revoke the patron's Internet
privileges, or notify law enforcement, if the library believes
that the patron violated either state obscenity laws or child
pornography laws. Although these methods of detecting use of
library computers to access illegal content are not perfect, and
a library, out of respect for patrons' privacy, may choose not to
adopt such policies, the government has failed to show that such
methods are substantially less effective at preventing patrons