librarians to make decisions about whether to honor patrons’ requests to unblock Web pages.  In the libraries proffered by the defendants, unblocking decisions sometimes take between 24 hours and a week.  Moreover, none of these libraries allows unrestricted access to the Internet pending a determination of the validity of a Web site blocked by the blocking programs.  A few of the defendants’ proffered libraries represented that individual librarians would have the discretion to allow a patron to have full Internet access on a staff computer upon request, but none claimed that allowing such access was mandatory, and patron access is supervised in every instance.  None of these libraries makes differential unblocking decisions based on the patrons’ age.  Unblocking decisions are usually made identically for adults and minors.  Unblocking decisions even for adults are usually based on suitability of the Web site for minors.

It is apparent that many patrons are reluctant or unwilling to ask librarians to unblock Web pages or sites that contain only materials that might be deemed personal or embarrassing, even if they are not sexually explicit or pornographic.  We credit the testimony of Emmalyn Rood, discussed above, that she would have been unwilling as a young teen to ask a librarian to disable filtering software so that she could view materials concerning gay and lesbian issues.  We also credit the testimony of Mark Brown, who stated that he would have been too embarrassed to ask a librarian to disable filtering software if it had impeded his ability to research treatments and cosmetic surgery options for his mother when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  The pattern of patron requests to unblock specific URLs in the various libraries involved in this case also confirms our finding that patrons are largely unwilling to make unblocking requests unless they are permitted to do so anonymously.  For example, the Fulton County Library receives only about 6 unblocking requests each year, the Greenville Public Library has received only 28 unblocking requests since August 21, 2000, and the Westerville, Ohio Library has received fewer than 10 unblocking requests since 1999.  In light of the fact that a substantial amount of overblocking occurs in these very libraries, see infra Subsection ii.E.4, we find that the lack of unblocking requests in these libraries does not reflect the effectiveness of the filters, but rather reflects patrons’ reluctance to ask librarians to unblock sites. 5.  Internet Filtering Technology 1.  What Is Filtering Software, Who Makes It, and What Does It Do?