A County Council committee likely will approve a resolution today that would require the Allegheny County Library Association to issue annual reports of incidents involving illegal viewing of pornographic or obscene material on public library computers.

But because of state laws limiting access to library records and the First Amendment, the reports will not list the names of anyone involved in a specific incident.

Councilman Vince Gastgeb, R-Bethel Park, first introduced the resolution in March, and he has been working with Marilyn Jenkins, the association's executive director, and other library officials during the last few weeks to make adjustments.

"The libraries have been the ones helping me the most with this," Gastgeb said.

In February, a 12-year-old girl saw a man viewing nude women on a computer at the Bethel Park Library. The library updated its filtering software and the girl's mother later contacted Gastgeb about the incident.

All libraries that accept funds from the federal government are already required to block access to certain Web sites under the Children's Internet Protection Act, a federal law passed in 2000.

The eiNetwork, the computer network that links the 44 public library systems that belong to ACLA, already uses a filtering system and regularly applies improvements to that technology.

Gastgeb's resolution would call on the library association to notify council by Oct. 1 of every year about efforts to update its filters. The association would also list the date of any incidents and describe how they were handled.

If ACLA does not meet these requirements, the county would withhold funding for the eiNetwork.

Currently, Allegheny County does not provide any direct funds to the network. But about $2.3 million comes from the county's Regional Asset District, which, under state law, can provide money for libraries and other cultural institutions using county sales tax revenue.

An amended version of the resolution being considered by council's Public Safety Committee today makes clear that the eiNetwork, and not the entire library association, would lose funding if the reports are not filed. The amended resolution also says the incident reports will not include names.

Charles Martoni, the committee chairman, said he would approve sending the resolution to the full council for a vote as long as library officials are satisfied with the changes.

"I don't want this to be an anti-library bill," he said.

Cynthia Richey, director of Mt. Lebanon Public Library and a member of ACLA's board of directors, doesn't think it is.

"It's well intentioned," she said. "It reinforces on a county level what is already happening at the state and federal level."

Richey, a former chairwoman of the eiNetwork's Internet access committee, said she has been working with Gastgeb and would be advising council about the annual reports if the resolution passes.

The amended resolution also calls for the county police and the district attorney's office to conduct seminars with library staff about appropriate Internet usage.

If the committee approves the resolution, County Council members will vote on it during a meeting on Wednesday. The regular meeting will be a day later than usual because of the Tuesday election.

The resolution already has bipartisan support. Democrats Martoni and Joan Cleary have joined Republicans Gastgeb, Jan Rea and Eileen Watt as sponsors.

Richey said, besides the Bethel Park incident, she has not heard about serious problems at county libraries. She said her library has had a few minor incidents that wouldn't need to be reported.

"We've had more problems with people trying to stay on the computers for too long," she said.