But she did the right thing

Sometimes you can't just sit back and catalogue or classify...sometimes you have to take action. One librarian did--and lost her job over it.

California Librarian Fired for Reporting Man Viewing Child Porn

Lindsay Librarian Fired for Reporting Man Viewing Child Porn

The supervisor told her to make a note on the man’s library account and tell him to stop looking at the pictures. Biesterfeld felt that the authorities needed to be alerted, so she called the police anyway. When police did get involved, they found thousands of images of child pornography. 39-year-old Donnie Chrisler was arrested, and a day and a half later; Biesterfeld was out of a job.

There's a time when our desire to protect the privacy of our patrons has to submit to the greater good. And whilst that greater good is sometimes hard to define, I think most of us agree that protecting children from exploitation and possible abuse is more important that anyone's anonymity as a library patron surfing the net.