Libraries Say Yes, Officials Do Quiz Them About Users

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Libraries Say Yes, Officials Do Quiz Them About Users
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/politics/20patriot.html?
NY Times
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: June 20, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 19 - Law enforcement officials have made at least 200
formal and informal inquiries to libraries for information on reading
material and other internal matters since October 2001, according to a new
study that adds grist to the growing debate in Congress over the
government's counterterrorism powers.

In some cases, agents used subpoenas or other formal demands to obtain
information like lists of users checking out a book on Osama bin Laden.
Other requests were informal - and were sometimes turned down by
librarians who chafed at the notion of turning over such material, said
the American Library Association, which commissioned the study.

The association, which is pushing to scale back the government's powers to
gain information from libraries, said its $300,000 study was the first to
examine a question that was central to a House vote last week on the USA
Patriot Act: how frequently federal, state and local agents are demanding
records from libraries.

The Bush administration says that while it is important for law
enforcement officials to get information from libraries if needed in
terrorism investigations, officials have yet to actually use their power
under the Patriot Act to demand records from libraries or bookstores.  
The library issue has become the most divisive in the debate on whether
Congress should expand or curtail government powers under the Patriot Act,
and it was at the center of last week's vote in the House approving a
measure to restrict investigators' access to libraries.

The study does not directly answer how or whether the Patriot Act has
been used to search libraries. The association said it decided it was
constrained from asking direct questions on the law because of secrecy
provisions that could make it a crime for a librarian to respond.
Federal intelligence law bans those who receive certain types of demands
for records from challenging the order or even telling anyone they have
received it.

See link for rest of article.

Chuck Hamaker
Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services
Atkins Library
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223
phone 704 687-2825