FBI's reading list worries librarians

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

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-12-16-librarians-usat_x.htm
USA Today Dec. 16.

FBI's reading list worries librarians
By Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY

At New York City's Queens Borough Public Library, director Gary Strong is an
uneasy draftee on the front line of the war on terrorism.

New surveillance laws that have made it easier for FBI agents to obtain
search warrants for library records have created a dilemma for librarians
such as Strong: Should they unquestioningly help agents track what a
patron has been reading, and perhaps help prevent a terror attack? Or
should they resist, and try to protect individual liberties and the
library's status as a haven of intellectual inquiry?

snip

.... some librarians, .. are filing lawsuits against the Justice
Department and lobbying ongress in a growing debate over whether America
values are being trampled in the name of homeland security.

snip

Under the Patriot Act, the FBI no longer has to show a judge that it has
probable cause to believe that a person under surveillance has committed a
crime to get a search warrant for a library's circulation records or
computer hard drives, or a bookstore's sales records.

snip

Along with the search warrant comes a gag order - a judicial command to
the record-keeper to tell nobody about the visit or else risk being
prosecuted.

snip

Justice spokesman Mark Corallo says "the average American" has nothing to
worry about. Patriot Act search warrants affect only "agents of a foreign
power or terrorists," he says. An order from the foreign intelligence
court "is subject to judicial approval, judicial supervision and
congressional oversight. So the checks and balances are there."

snip

Early this year, there weren't many signs of FBI action. A national survey
of 1,023 libraries by the University of Illinois in January got anonymous
responses reporting 83 visits from authorities.

snip

.... some librarians have considered installing signs warning that the FBI
might be monitoring computer users' keystrokes.

snip

In June, a committee of the House of Representatives asked the Justice
Department how often it had sought records from libraries, bookstores or
newspapers. The government supplied the figures but marked them
classified...

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