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Posted on 10/07/2003 5:05:33 PM PDT by Brian S
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Some Wisconsin libraries have purged circulation records to protect privacy as a result of the new federal Patriot Act, and others have started warning patrons about the law's effects.
The Wisconsin Library Association issued a sample policy last spring for member libraries to use to "protect against the unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of library users" following adoption of the law. The group has since surveyed its members on what actions they have taken.
Workers at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay's Cofrin Library regularly delete records of requests for books or other material once those transactions are completed.
"If we had kept those patron records and if we were visited by the FBI, then they would have been able to look at all those records. They would have had access to all patron records, not just one individual's," said library director Leanne Hansen,
Hansen said she and her staff do not oppose fighting terrorism but believe the Patriot Act wrongly gives the FBI authority to peruse people's library records.
Mark Corallo, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman, said that to get a search warrant under the Patriot Act, the FBI must show evidence to a federal judge that the records being sought would involve international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.
"The FBI is prohibited from conducting investigations of U.S. citizens solely on the basis of activities based on the First Amendment," he said.
Corallo also said the libraries were not breaking any federal law by destroying their circulation records "under the misguided notion that the FBI is monitoring what people are reading."
But he said libraries could be destroying records that grand juries have the right to subpoena as evidence for other crimes, such as child pornography.
Meanwhile, the library association has suggested that its members ask whether they have a good reason to keep records they are keeping and, if not, get rid of them.
"We're telling libraries to consult their local legal counsels, review their policies and know what their privacy and record retention policies are," said Peter Gilbert, state library association president and a reference librarian at Lawrence University in Appleton.
The Beloit Public Library has posted warnings that say: "Although the Beloit Public Library makes every effort to protect your privacy, under the federal USA Patriot Act, records of the books and other materials you borrow from this library may be obtained by federal agents. That federal law prohibits library workers from informing you if federal agents have obtained records about you."
Lynda Moon, the Beloit Library Board president, said her board has always had a policy that "it was essential that citizens be able to read and explore ideas freely without fear of surveillance."
But she said that, if FBI agents arrived with a search warrant, the library would comply with the law as long as they had the proper order from the government.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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These people certianly do oppose fighting terrorisim. They're destroying records in order to help terrorists.
If the FBI is "wrongly" using such information, then the proper forum to discuss that is in court. These leftist libs are taking things into their own hands out of a misplaced anger at Geo. Bush. If Janet Reno had trumpeted the PA, then they'd love it, and would call the feds at the first sign of David Koresh in the library with the video tape of everything he did.
I wonder if Mohammed Atta had any overdue library books.
FREEDOM!
There are good and bad ways to do ANYTHING. Excessive intrusive record keeping is a bad way to catch terrorists. A waste of time and destructive to liberty. LIBERTY! Which we should all be zealous to keep safe.
Odd that nothing in the PA enforces border control or the "illegals" crossing that border by the hundreds.
"Home free" = making it across the border... Simple task for those wanting a job or those wanting to kill.
Why is it wrong now, and not before?
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