Filter Testimonials
BASCOM’s Patronus™—A Library Internet Filtering Appliance (http://www.bascom.com/solutions/patronus/library-filter.php)
Suffolk Cooperative Library System (SCLS) is a cooperative enterprise which includes 50 member libraries in Suffolk County, NY. SCLS provides services to each of its members, including coordinated orders in which members can benefit by obtaining online products and services for a reduced price. SCLS was asked to recommend a filtering solution for both larger libraries with their own technical staff and smaller libraries that have a single librarian, often someone who demonstrated an aptitude for using computers. Another challenge in our selection process was the philosophy of our member libraries; many librarians expressed views of web filtering as a form of censorship. SCLS held many meetings with both administration and technical staff to find a solution that would protect computers used by minors differently than adult or staff computers; the solution was also to provide librarians with the ability to instantly turn the filter off.
We chose Patronus, a library Internet filtering appliance with a built-in firewall. BASCOM developed their library filter based on feedback from our members, and during the initial development built the most important feature to date: the Filter Override. With this feature, our librarians are now able to easily unblock websites (a CIPA requirement) on a per user basis. The override can be scheduled for a specific period of time, so that filtering is automatically restored for the next patron.
The ability to select different profiles by either login type or IP address gives our librarians the ability to customize access for children, teens, adults or staff. Our members were much more receptive to filtering because of this flexibility. Using Patronus, adult computers can now have open access that provides security from viruses and phishing sites. Access to information is not limited while at the same time patrons are safe from online scams and computers are secured from malicious sites.
Patronus also provides an Acceptable Use Policy screen that allows our libraries to create a WiFi hotspot for patrons using their own laptops; this screen requires them to read and agree to our Internet policies before getting online access.
SCLS has rarely needed support for Patronus. However, when we did, we spoke to either a skilled technician or developer. BASCOM’s support is like having a consultant available who is always looking for new opportunities to improve functionality. We are looking forward to using BASCOM's new Anywhere Filter™ for mobile devices (included with Patronus.) It was released just as we were unpacking our new iPads!
Iron Port Web Security Appliance (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10164/)
We use IronPort and it is working quite well. I'd never heard of it until our county IT security guy recommended it. We test it thoroughly and were generally quite pleased with the testing results. With just the porn and child porn catagories blocked, we discovered very little overblocking of sites that we would expect patrons to be able to get to. I think so far we've only come across two or three sites that needed to be added to the "never block" list.
Truth is, though, the vast majority of searches are being done without any content filtering engaged, because only a small percentage of adults and teen ever choose filtered searching.
We did have to back way off the reputation settings on the malware filter, because that was what was causing the problem with Yahoomail and Hotmail. Apparently they keep some rather unsavory company on some of the cloud servers they use. Just to be clear, we are blocking for malware now on all our public computers. So far, that is working. We haven't had reports of people not being able to get to sites, and apparently we are also cutting down on ITs workload related to decontaminating our PCs. We are also blocking anonymizer and filter avoidance sites. That anonymizer piece is a little ironic though. Because all searches are proxied through the filter, you could never link a search back to an individual patron anyway. All roads just lead to that filter proxy server.
M86 Web Filtering and Reporting (http://www.m86security.com/products/web_security/m86-web-filtering-reporting-suite.asp)
We have been using the M86 Web Filtering and Reporting Suite (http://www.m86security.com/products/web_security/m86-web-filtering-reporting-suite.asp) for about 2 years now and are very pleased with the price, performance and support. We filter our adult computers and our wireless public access for adult content/porn. Our settings for the computers located in the children’s areas are a bit more strict, covering such areas as social networking sites, online dating sites, etc.
We also use the filter for our OPACs to limit access specifically to our online catalog and the library’s website.
On our public access computers, we will allow access to blocked sites for bona fide research if the patron is over 18 or they have parental permission. In the 2 years we’ve had M86, though, we haven’t had to deal with this. We haven’t run into the false blocks (or porn getting through) we seemed to have with our previous vendor (CyberPatrol). We started filtering the adult workstations in 2008 per our county attorney’s interpretation of HP 2197 (http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?071+sum+HB2197) and were expecting some backlash, but haven’t received any negative feedback.
iPrism Web Filter (http://www.stbernard.com/products/iprism/filtering/default.asp)
We've been using an Iprism for content filtering for several years and are happy with it. However, our multi-year subscription ends later this year and I've got to shop around. I know there are many filters available but we have a somewhat unique way that we like to handle overrides. If a patron hits a blocked page a message is displayed with a button to click to override. If the patron requests, a librarian will decide if the block should be overridden. To accomplish the override the librarian will enter a name and password at the patron computer, then unblock the particular domain for a period of one hour on that computer only. I intend to get an evaluation unit of the SmoothWall SWG-708, which seems to have a similar method for overrides.
Websense Web Security (http://www.websense.com/content/WebSecurity.aspx)
My library does use a filter, Websense, which works very well with multimedia content, as well as with working with our requests to add or subtract sites both for their lists and for ours) and most of our staff are pretty satisfied with both A. the operation of the filter and B. where that leaves us philosophically OpenDNS After strenuously resisting filtering for lo these many years we were finally forced to adopt it in the interest of saving staff time which had been taken up reporting and disciplining patrons for porn, etc. We decided to tryOpenDNS since it’s free, and we have stuck with it as it seems to do a good job. We did have a few complaints in the first week that certain pages were not available; I whitelisted some sites and gently explained to some other patrons that pictures of scantily clad young ladies offering sexual services did not meet our internet policy standards. Overall we’re pretty happy with it although with the caveat, as with all filtering systems, that we don’t know what we’re not getting.