Brenda Biesterfeld

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Brenda Biesterfeld was a librarian at the Lindsay, California branch of the Tulare County public library, California, USA, who was fired on March 6, 2008 after reporting to police a visitor who watched child pornography on the library computer. The supervisor warned her not to call police, but she still reported the case resulting in visitor arrested and library computer seized.^[1][2]

[edit] Dispute over reasoning of her firing

The official statement from the Tulare County did confirm that among the reasons of firing was her call to police, but a number of other her infractions were listed as well.^[3] At the same time, Brenda's evaluation carried out in January stated that her work was "reasonable and consistent with normal expectations of proficiency."^[4] The legal firm working on behalf of Brenda established that Brenda's records were modified postfactum and in fact Brenda was expecting promotion before the incident.^[5]

[edit] Impact of incident

The case attracted nationwide attention^[6] and the outrage of the locals.^[2] The subsequent discussion, among other issues, involved the position of the American Library Association which denied librarians' responsibility to restrict viewing legally obscene information citing "intellectual freedom".^[1] Randy Thomasson, chief of the Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), stated that the case has significant national implications.^[7]

The Family Friendly Libraries association awarded Brenda with its Gold Star Award for her actions. It was presented to her by the councilwoman of the city of Lindsay.^[6]

Brenda's case and its implications were covered at the March 27, 2008 episode of The O'Reilly Factor.^[8]

[edit] References