Feds at the Library? Librarians Say They Are Asked for Patron Information

In October 2003, during then?Attorney General John Ashcroft's fervent campaign for the USA PATRIOT Act, he routinely denounced what he called the "hysteria" of its opponents. Speaking to a group of restaurateurs, he mocked the notion that FBI agents might skulk around libraries asking patrons about their reading habits: "Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading? No."

And yet, less than two years later, the American Library Association has released a study showing that the Feds might care after all?at least a little. According to the ALA, some 137 requests for information from law enforcement officials have been made in academic and public libraries since Oct. 2001.

Researchers conducting the $300,000 study approached more than 1,500 public libraries and more than 4,000 academic libraries, with 33% and 23% (respectively) responding. Most of the respondents reported that they had not been visited by either federal or state/local law enforcement officials. But those public libraries who had been visited reported "16 instances of requests for information from federal agencies and 47 instances when state/local law enforcement officials formally requested one or more types of records," according to the ALA's press release. Similarly, academic libraries reported 33 instances of requests for information and 41 instances of requests for one or more types of records.

The study does not, however, specifically indicate whether the PATRIOT Act was invoked in the Feds' requests due to the nature of the legislation, which prohibits those who have been subject of a search under Section 215 from speaking about the search. Had the survey asked about searches conducted under the Patriot Act, then, any librarian who affirmed that they'd been searched would have been committing a crime.

The study also shows that patrons are concerned about their records being searched (as, it appears, they should be). Forty percent of public library respondents and 10% of academic-library respondents indicated that the policies and practices of libraries related to the Patriot Act were a concern for at least some of their patrons.

"We now know with certainty that law enforcement is visiting libraries and asking for information on library patrons," says Emily Sheketoff, associate executive director of the ALA, Washington Office. "We must ensure that the proper oversight is in place to ensure that the government doesn't conduct 'fishing expeditions' at America's libraries."

The Bush Administration maintains that access to library and bookstore records is vital to their terrorism investigations?after Congress voted on June 15 to cut funding for bookstore and library searches, assistant Attorney General William Moschella wrote to Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R, Va.), stating that "bookstores and libraries should not be carved out as safe havens for terrorists and spies, who have, in fact, used public libraries to do research and communicate with their co-conspirators." But the Bush administration also maintains that the federal government has yet to exercise the new power that the Patriot Act gives them.

"This right to privacy of library patrons has been confirmed by 48 states that have laws that require a legal order to obtain library records," says ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano. "ALA believes the right to read freely is constitutionally guaranteed and seeks to protect it for the people we serve."