Many years ago in the days before the web, the BMA Library ran a (UK)
national dialup Medline service using Ovid's software.  Our help desk
received several call froma well-known hospital in west London that the
service was unavailable.  Further investigation showed that the local
Department of Information Prevention had blocked our  number at the
switchboard "because too many people were phoning it".  When I followed
it up with the head of the DIP he was adamant and only changed his mind
when I threatened to go to the media naming names.

Many years later, the library had a couple of workstations outside the
firewall so that we could replicate problems reported to us by users of
our Medline Plus service.  In the cause of freedom of speech, our
internet use guideless allowed for access to these block-free terminals
for BMA members who needed to access sex, violence and racist sites
which were normally blocked.  These terminals were in busy offices full
of no-nonsense young linbrarians, and only one person ef=ver took up the
offer - he was researching access control for membership sites, and
apparently at that time all the best examples of good practice came into
the "Adult" category.  He researched quietly away in the corner without
giving offence (it's hard to offend or shock people who spend their days
leafing though the literature of medicine) and went on  his way.  Young
UK doctors being what they are, I have always assumed he did it for a
bet.  If so, he earned every penny.

Tony

Tony McSean
Director of Library Relations
Elsevier
32 Jamestown Road
London NW1 7BY
 
+44 7795 960516
+44 20 7424 4242

-----Original Message-----
From: Medical Libraries Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Rothman
Sent: 08 February 2007 23:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: CHAT: Have You Been Blocked from Websites on the Job?

By default, our IS department blocks access to all sites until an
exception is identified and an allowance are made.

However, our IS department realized that the administrative burden of
such a system was going to be toug for them to manage.  They would have
to receive every new request, evaluate the requested site as low-risk
and professionally appropriate, then make an exception for it in our
hospital's proxy/firewall.  Instead, they have decided to trust our
library to be savvy enough about information and the web to evaluate
sites as appropriate destinations for clinical information, and they
allow us to manage (allow) access to those sites in the proxy/firewall
ourselves.

Should we receive a request that seems valid to us but not really a
destination for _clinical_ information, we can review it and pass our
recommendation to the IS department, and this helps expedite its
approval.
In this manner, security is kept tight while the library plays a role in
resolving the problem for users.

The above, of course, applies to computers that are in nursing units.
Computers in the library have fewer restrictions on them, and the IS
department relies on the library to supervise their use to help reduce
potential risk to the network.

David Rothman
Information Services Specialist
Community General Hospital Medical Library Syracuse, NY
http://davidrothman.net


>
> I understand my employer's need to control access to the Internet, and

> certainly a usual search of this nature by an employee is likely to be

> suspect, but in this case time was of the essence in determining 
> treatment.
>
>
>
> Has anyone else experienced this issue?  I would appreciate hearing 
> more from all sides of this concern.
>
>
>
> Take care, all--
>
>
>
> Donna L. Beales, MLIS
>
> Lowell General Hospital
>
> Health Science Library
>
> 295 Varnum Ave.
>
> Lowell, MA 01854
>
> 978-937-6247
>
> Fax: 978-937-6855
>
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> www.lowellgeneral.org/library <http://www.lowellgeneral.org/library>
>
>
>
>
>
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