- Hi Jeff -- I listened with interest to your conversation
with Jim Marrs on May 14th. You discussed the fact that librarians are
fighting the Patriot Act.
-
- I head one of the libraries at a university in Iowa.
Last fall, all of the librarians in the country were invited to view a
teleconference on the Patriot Act sponsored by the major U.S. library associations.
This program featured an attorney that gave us instructions on what to
do if the FBI or other government agency showed up at the library demanding
information.
-
- The bottom line was this: If they come in with a supoena,
you can stall awhile and respond later. If they come in with a warrant,
you must step aside and let them take whatever they want to take including
computer hard drives, files--whatever is of interest to them. The law
states that you can tell no one that the FBI is or has been at the library.
To try and deal with this provision, and in order to afford us some protection,
we have developed a "code message" at our university. If government
officials show up, we are to call the university attorney and say "Your
presence is needed immediately at the library". We also have held
meetings at our library to make sure that files are purged regularly, that
computer files are not kept that identify people, and that paper identifying
patrons is shredded. This is a sad state of affairs...and a big attack
on intellectual freedom.
-
- Librarians have always been champions of intellectual
freedom, and we fight against censorship and harrassment of readers to
the best of our abilities. Actually a librarian was responsible for getting
Michael Moore's book "Stupid White Men" published. It was scheduled
to be published in September, 2001, but the publisher pulled the book after
9/11. A librarian in New Jersey helped organize a boycott with other librarians
of this major publisher. (Librarians, while not wealthy people, do control
big budgets spent with publishers!) The boycott eventually "convinced"
the publisher to change its mind about publishing his book, and now Michael
Moore is eternally grateful to the library profession. This is just one
small victory, but a good example of the fight in which we find ourselves.
-
- We librarians will keep fighting the fight in our small
ways, whether it is shredding a lot of paper or organizing boycotts. It
is heartening to see some city councils taking the initiative to pass local
laws against compliance with the Patriot Act. I would like to encourage
everyone to look for ways to fight this or resist it--from writing to their
congresspeople to helping raise people's awareness of what is happening.
Hopefully together we can put this law to rest for good.
|
