The San Benito County Free Library is informing the public about a new web address after a “glitch” occurred causing the institution to lose its old one, which now shows pornography.
Library officials have responded to the issue by creating a new web address—SBCFL.org—and by informing customers about it, but have not found a way to remove the porn on the old one and are unsure if they have any legal capacity to do so.
Even with the new web address, however, a San Benito County Free Library icon at the top-left corner of the new SBCFL.org—as of noon Monday—still redirected readers to the old site with pornography on it.
Head Librarian Nora Conte explained that the library has been working to inform the public about a new address, although the local newspaper had not received any information about it as of Monday morning when a reader mentioned the issue.
“I do not know exactly how the glitch occurred, but it occurred,” Conte said.
She could not explain if the library’s ownership term on the web address had expired or what caused the loss of ownership.
“We just don’t own it,” she said.
Either way, the situation cropped up about two weeks ago, she said. Conte said the library has been informing customers about the new address, but would not say whether there was an effort to expressly warn parents and others about the old one’s contents.
Conte said an information technology professional is working to resolve the issue, but it’s unclear if there’s anything the county can do about the porn on the old site.
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