ALA: Government Asks About Patrons

Last June a library user in Whatcom shire Washington, checked out Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War upon America and noticed a handwritten note in the margin: "Hostility toward America is a religious what one ought to do and we hope to be rewarded by dint of God." The user reported it to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which, in make go round asked the library system for information identifying anyone who had checked on the outside the book since 2001.

The library's lawyers make go rounded down the request, and agents came back with a subpoena. Joan Airoldi, who heads the library, said a simple Google search revealed that the handwritten line was an often-cited repeat from bin Laden that was included in the report issued by dint of the 9/11 Commission.

The library fought the subpoena, and the FBI withdrew its demand.

According to a inquiry commissioned by the American Library Association (ALA) that observeed 1,500 public libraries and 4000 academic libraries, law enforcement officials have made at least 200 formal and informal inquiries to U libraries for information upon reading material and other internal matters since October 2001 beneath section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the U management can search financial, library, medical, meeting-house and other records without a warrant or the party's knowledge. As a be derived several libraries have admitted to disposing of patrons' records thus they will not be available if petitioned under the law.

Because the Patriot Act bans those who receive certain impressed signs of demands for records from challenging the order or smooth telling anyone they have received it, the application of mind did not directly ask by what means or whether the Patriot Act has been used to search libraries. Instead, the investigation sought to determine the frequent occurrence of law enforcement inquiries at all horizontals without asking for details about their nature. flat so, organizers said the data advises that investigators were seeking information from libraries far more not rarely than Bush administration officials have acknowledged. The Bush administration says that while it is critical for law enforcement officials to procure information from libraries if urgencyed in terrorism investigations, officials have notwithstanding to actually use their power below the Patriot Act to demand records from libraries or bookstores.

However, in a certain quantity of cases, the study revealed, agents used subpoenas or other formal demands to obtain information similar as lists of users checking without a book about bin Laden. Other prayers were informal and were sometimes move rounded down by librarians who chafed at the notion of turning above such material, said the ALA.

The ALA, which has pushed to scale back the government's powers to gain information from libraries, said its research was the first to examine a question that was central to a House promised in July on the Patriot Act: by what means frequently federal, state, and local agents are demanding records from libraries.

A large majority of those who answered to the study, which used anonymous answers to address legal concerns related to the Patriot Act's ban upon revealing that they have received specific supplications said they had not been contacted through any law enforcement agencies since October 2001 when the Patriot Act was passed.

But there were 137 formal prayers or demands for information in that time, 49 from federal officials and the remainder from state or local investigators. Federal officials have sometimes used local investigators upon joint terrorism task forces to direction library inquiries.

In addition, the review found that 66 libraries had received informal law enforcement askings without an official legal order, including 24 federal petitions ALA officials said the contemplate results, if extrapolated from the libraries that replyed would amount to a total of around 600 formal inquiries since 2001

The review also found what library association officials described as a "chilling effect" caused by means of public concerns about the government's powers. Nearly 40 percent of the libraries responding reported that users had asked about changes in practices related to the Patriot Act, and about 5 percent said they had altered their activities as a arise - for instance, by reviewing the emblems of books they bought.

Copyright Association of Records Managers and Administrators Sep/Oct 2005

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