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Discusses how libraries can get the public support they need using the Kalamazoo Public Library (KPL) in Michigan as an example. How Kalamazoo County receives more money per capita than the average public library; Citizen support for the library; Efforts of KPL to communicate its needs to local communities.

Deals with First Amendment rights of public-library users to receive online communications in the United States. Results of a February 2000 referendum on the issue of filters on a library's Internet terminals in Holland, Michigan; Percentage of Internet sites that are considered pornographic; Debate about protecting children on the Internet.

Reports news related to libraries as of January, 2003. Additional funding for sixty additional staff positions at the Jacksonville Public Library in Florida; Recommended raises for staffers at the Akron-Summit County Public Library; Use of a public library computer at the Warren Public Library in Michigan by a teenager who sent e-mail messages to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation threatening to kill U.S. President George W. Bush; Retirement of Harold Billings, director of general libraries at the University of Texas at Austin; Other news.

Focuses on the decision of the Herrick District Library in Holland, Michigan, to use filtering software on its Internet terminals. How a referendum to require such software in libraries was voted down; Michigan law, which requires libraries to prevent minors from accessing obscene or sexually explicit material; Limitations of the tap-on-the-shoulder policy the library had been using.

Reports that residents of Holland, Michigan have rejected a library censorship plan backed by the American Family Association. Measure as requiring the city's library to block all computers from receiving certain sites on the World Wide Web; Library's policies to deal with patrons who access pornographic Web sites; Computers in the children's wing of the library as not connected to the World Wide Web.

Reports a decision that Georgetown Township Library in Jenison, Michigan should revert to an all-filtered access policy for the Internet. How House Bill 4191 prompted administrators to adopt a $100 policy for unfettered Internet access; Township officials declaring the law ambiguous enough to allow filtering; Concern of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Details how the Georgetown Township Library devised a unique response to a Michigan law authorizing library boards to restrict minor's Internet access to obscene material. Requirement of the law that libraries offer unfiltered access to adults; Cost of an unfiltered computing per hour.

Offers news briefs related to censorship in the United States as of November 1, 2000. Installation of Internet filters in Michigan libraries despite voter opposition; Opposition of churches to a showing of the motion picture 'The Last Temptation of Christ,' at the Catskill (N.Y.) Public Library; Decision of U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer that an ordinance legalizing library censorship in Wichita Falls, Texas is unconstitutional; Decision not to ban the book 'Fallen Angels' at the Arlington (Tex.) Independendent School District.

Reports that in August 1999, the Georgetown Township Library, in Grand Rapids, Michigan charged patrons $100 an hour for unfiltered Internet access. Details of a Michigan state law which empowers library trustees to filter on the Internet; Reaction of town officials to the fee.