Posted on 09/09/2006 1:27:06 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
"Jittery" was how Barbara Dimick, Madison's head librarian, described the zeitgeist in her profession as the Patriot Act was rolled out in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Five years later, Dimick said her staff tells her that the law, which allows the government access to library records without a court order, "doesn't come into play."
But Dimick says she can't say whether the Madison Public Library ever received a request for records under the act.
"That's the gag order part," she said.
The Patriot Act was amended slightly when it was reauthorized in March.
The guidelines under which the government can demand documents are somewhat more stringent, requiring that the government establish reasonable grounds that the records are relevant to an authorized investigation of terrorism, according to the American Library Association.
"I don't think they've lost anything in their ability to get the information they might deem necessary," Dimick said.
Still, the potential invasion of privacy posed by the law prompted the Madison library to review and revise its policy on record-keeping.
"It cleaned up our act in some ways," Dimick said.
Member libraries also coordinated their policies with those of the South Central Library System, which runs the computer system area libraries use to catalog and share materials.
"We've helped libraries in general with information about how to respond to a request for records," said Stefanie Morrill, associate director of the South Central Library System.
"We've always tried to achieve patron privacy and keep a free flow of information," Morrill said. "We're doing what we've always done."
Allen Ruff, events coordinator for the Rainbow Bookstore, said the cooperative keeps no records of customers' names or personal information.
"We could if we wanted to," he said. "We consciously do not because of the Patriot Act."
A leftist peace activist, Ruff ruminated that the 460-page, far-reaching Patriot Act "was not concocted in the days after 9/11."
"They were looking for a moment to carry out a revision to make the federal code more repressive," Ruff said.
Does Ruff think the government helped create the moment?
"I think the grand conspiracists grant too much power to the powers that be," he said.
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