[Spooky23]

I'd recommend complaining to the library trustees about it.

There's no reason they should be refusing your traffic, and they are probably only causing a problem because some overzealous consultant cranked up the setting too high.

In my city, the compliance requirement that must be met is to have a policy to address "obscene, indecent, violent, or otherwise inappropriate for viewing in the library environment". Blocking SSH access is not required meet that compliance requirement.

In our case, our library actually doesn't filter, it's left to the discretion of the librarians. And there is a time limit for access.

[VLM]

"Blocking SSH access is not required meet that compliance requirement."

Read up about SSH VPNs. Probably some kid set up a proxy accessed over SSH port forwarding, to access some pr0n site, got caught, and next thing you know, no SSH allowed anymore. If they were really smart they'd allow it but rate limit it to 2400 bit/s, which is fairly fast for console work but not so great for downloading animated pr0n gifs.

Whats weird is librarians typically are pretty hard core against censorship. The same place thats willing to go to court to keep "to kill a mockingbird" or "huckleberry finn" on the shelves, will simultaneously spare no expense to block adults from accessing a breast cancer awareness site. A strange bunch, librarians.

[Spooky23]

The library has an obligation to make a good faith effort to meet whatever compliance requirements that they are faced with. That's it. It isn't a bank or military installation.

If the original poster brings in an air card, and starts watching porn with the volume cranked up, the library doesn't have a right or obligation to jam the cellular network. They do whatever their policy calls for (usually ask the guy to leave).

Librarians are very rarely the problem -- the trustees or other governing body usually is. Make a fuss and in most cases the problems will go away. YMMV depending on the community, of course.

[luxpir]

Cheers for your thoughts. I suspect the UK public library authority I would have to appeal to would have zero motivation to help with SSH access, unfortunately. I imagine it has been blocked for a specific reason, probably some previous or expected abuse, as you've both mentioned.

The SSH over SSL solutions others have pointed out may do the trick for now.