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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