Lynn Library Board of Trustees unanimously approves new Internet security regulations

LYNN – The Lynn Library Board of Trustees’ members unanimously approved regulations for people who use the library’s computers on Thursday, the first time in 15 years the library has revisited its web policy.Now, users who view obscene material on library computers will have their computer use terminated and face a possible ban from the library. Library staff will also notify police if someone views illegal material on the computer.View a rough draft of the approved Lynn Library web policy.”This is pretty much the policy of every major library,” Chief Librarian Theresa Hurley told the board members in their monthly meeting Thursday.The policy comes less than a month after police charged a Lynn man with viewing child pornography on a library computer.A police report said Stephen Camire, 37, of 29 Chase St., used a library computer on Jan. 20 to view Internet photographs of children and pornographic images of adults. He pleaded innocent in District Court on Jan. 30.Until Thursday, the Lynn Library’s web policy didn’t say what users could or couldn’t do with library computers, Hurley said in an interview before the meeting.”It was just very vague,” she said.The old policy is currently posted on the Lynn Library’s website.Hurley said the new policy strikes a balance between providing diverse resources and information for library users and prohibiting inappropriate behavior.”We don’t want to control the information that’s available, but we don’t want to condone illegal activity of any kind,” she said.Hurley said she hopes to revamp many of the library’s policies, including basic behavior rules for library patrons and staff.The Board of Trustees also discussed Thursday how to manage the library’s finances in light of two scandals in neighboring Saugus and Revere public libraries in which library employees stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the library.Trustees must approve every purchase the library makes, said John Sullivan, an auditor from Melanson, Heath & Co., a New England accounting company, who attended the meeting.Hurley said Sullivan was the auditor who discovered that more than $800,000 was missing from the Saugus Library, which led to federal charges in December against former Saugus Library worker Linda Duffy.He told Lynn’s library trustees that Saugus’ trustees didn’t have much participation in where the library’s money was going, which allowed one employee to control every aspect of the library’s finances.Sullivan said Duffy fabricated entire finance reports for the trustees who, in turn, didn’t notice anything was wrong.He urged Lynn’s trustees to have a thorough understanding of the library’s purchases.”It’s a set of checks and balances,” he told the board. ” ? You’re a key set of checks and balances.”He said that Massachusetts law requires the library’s trustees to approve every purchase.”And if they don’t?” Hurley asked.”Then you can’t pay up,” Sullivan said. “Send whatever it is back.”The board is considering changing the date of its monthly meeting so that it can approve the library’s finances in a more timely manner.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].