Library Board discusses enhanced search filters for children’s computers, concerns about unhoused patrons

(Lander, WY) – The Fremont County Library Board is exploring ways to improve the online content filters on the computers in the children’s sections at local branches.

The options the board discussed during a meeting this month ranged from making image searches more restrictive, to equipping the computers in the children’s sections with specialized software that doesn’t offer access to the internet.

The latter suggestion came from new Board Member David Mossburg, who recommended a program like “Magic Desktop,” which features educational games but does not allow direct internet searches.

Board Chair Perry Cook pointed out that some children need to access the internet to do schoolwork, however, and “we don’t want to deny kids the ability of learning how to access information.”

In those cases, Mossburg said parents could accompany their children to the adult section of the library to use the computers there – but Library Director Anita Marple said that alternative could expose children to inappropriate content, too.

“We have dedicated children’s computers so that they’re not sitting next to someone who (might) be looking at mature things, or on their Facebook page,” she explained. “We want the children to be in the children’s department using those computers that are for them.”

Marple said her staff would continue researching options for enhanced search restrictions on the children’s computers – but she also noted that internet filters are “never going to 100 percent prevent access” to inappropriate content online, because “people who don’t want to be filtered are constantly working to bypass filters.”

That’s why it’s important to encourage “parent involvement” and ensure that staff members continue to closely monitor the computers in the children’s sections, she said, recalling that, when Board Members Marta Mossburg and Kristen McClelland tested the internet filters on the children’s computers, they were immediately approached by a library employee who asked what they were doing.

“Staff are very aware of what’s going on,” Marple said. “You should be encouraged by that, (because) we can look at different filtering that will cost more money, but it will never 100 percent prevent someone getting around the filters.”

Unhoused patrons

David Mossburg said he had a different experience when he tested the computers in the children’s section in Riverton several weeks ago.

“Nobody was watching over what I was doing,” he said. “Nobody else was in. I was by myself.”

Marple asked him when he was there, and he said it was a day when there were “five homeless people” using the library – a comment that prompted Marple to pose another question.

“How do you know all five of those people were homeless?” she asked, urging David Mossburg to “be careful” about making those kinds of assumptions. 

“We can’t jump to conclusions about people.”

She also emphasized that the library is a resource for the public at large – including those who might be struggling to find housing.

“There are homeless people who come in who are there to improve their lives,” Marple said, describing one woman who visited the library “every day” for about a year while living out of her truck. 

That woman is now employed and has a place to live, Marple said – “so even if someone is homeless, we can’t just assume why they’re homeless or what they’re trying to do.”

Board Chair Perry Cook agreed that it isn’t “appropriate” for board members “to be judging who people are.”

“If you’re homeless, you have every right to be in the library … unless you’re violating one of our rules and regulations, or violating the law,” Cook said. “This library is for all the people of Fremont County. It’s not just for people … that have good jobs and (come from) a certain economic class.”

Regardless, Marta Mossburg said “a lot of people don’t feel safe going to the Riverton library” in particular, “largely because of the homeless people – or whoever they are – hanging outside … being violent (and) drinking.”

“(When we were) checking the filter that day, there was a homeless person – or someone who looked homeless – who was arrested,” she recalled. “And that has been a major issue. … I think it is important that we, as a board, address (that) problem.”

In response, Marple said the library system is “actively involved in working with” the Riverton Police Department on the issue of homelessness, which the city has struggled to address for decades.

She also cited the results of a 2024 community survey that showed 81 percent of respondents consider the library to be a safe space.

“I just do not want the public to walk away with the conclusion that the Riverton library is not safe,” she said.

The board decided to revisit the discussion about internet filters in September.

Their next meeting is scheduled to take place at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, at the Riverton Branch Library, 1330 W. Park Ave.

For more information about the Fremont County Library System, click here.