[wordup] Library may collect web porn

[Adam Shand]

From: http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,4972377%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

Library may collect web porn
AUGUST 26, 2002

THE National Library of Australia may soon start collecting pornographic
websites.

The library's latest newsletter said it was looking to add websites to its
extensive collection of erotica.
Electronic librarian Edgar Crook said in the newsletter the adult websites
would be added to the National Collection of Electronic Publications "thus
giving a representative picture of Australian erotica on the internet".

Mr Crook said the library already had such "weighty volumes" as Big 'n'
Bouncy and Bra Busters, among other magazines.

He said the erotica collection was a valuable part of the library.

"The examination of society and culture of a period by necessity involves
the study of its sexual life," Mr Crook said.

"The erotic matter created in, for example, the Victorian era is of great
interest to the modern historian.

"The surviving sexual diaries and pornographic novels of this era provide
insight into ordinary lives that are just as important as those provided
by the many 'improving' works or the social novels that are still so
widely enjoyed."

Since the 1970s the library has also collected gay erotica.

Mr Crook said the library did not collect the material for "the salacious
enjoyment of the contemporary reader".

"(It is) an indicator of social mores, standards and public attitudes to
matters sexual," Mr Crook said.

"With this in mind, it is clear that there is no merit in being coy today
and therefore delivering an incomplete picture to future researchers."

The library's guiding policy says that material should not be rejected on
the grounds that its content is controversial or likely to offend some
library clients.