Saturday, October 16, 2004
Campaign for Reader Privacy
Despite the progress made in the past 20 years in assuring the confidentiality of library records (see last post), librarians have recently found themselves in a new fight: government access to library records using Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. According to Section 215, government agents can request access to library records under a cloak of secrecy - in other words, you may never know that the FBI is interested in what you're reading.
In response, the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and PEN American Center have launched a drive to gather 1 million signatures on a petition to Congress to roll back Section 215. As they put it on their website:
"Attorney General John Ashcroft has repeatedly stated that the Department of Justice has never used Section 215. We should accept him at his word, and conclude that, if Section 215 was not needed in the 2 years after 9/11, during our Nation's greatest crisis since Pearl Harbor, then it is clear that the laws that already give the government the power to seek bookstore and library records while protecting against potential abuses of customer privacy are entirely adequate to the task of pursuing terrorists."
If you want to add your name, you can sign the petition online.
In response, the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and PEN American Center have launched a drive to gather 1 million signatures on a petition to Congress to roll back Section 215. As they put it on their website:
"Attorney General John Ashcroft has repeatedly stated that the Department of Justice has never used Section 215. We should accept him at his word, and conclude that, if Section 215 was not needed in the 2 years after 9/11, during our Nation's greatest crisis since Pearl Harbor, then it is clear that the laws that already give the government the power to seek bookstore and library records while protecting against potential abuses of customer privacy are entirely adequate to the task of pursuing terrorists."
If you want to add your name, you can sign the petition online.
# posted by AmandaWelsh @ 11:11 AM 
