Book stores and librarians complain about a request for this information but I am disturbed that they even keep a record of everything that I've bought or checked out.
Once a book has been checked back in, it should be removed from my record.
We don't even have to sign a card in the back of the book anymore to leave a permenant record of what we've checked out.
If the people with the books would stop being so nosey, there wouldn't be any records for the government to request.
I too have had some misgivings about those kind of orders but, as the article points out, at least the state has to show probable cause to obtain such an order, which is a higher standard that what they currently have to meet in these investigations. So to me that kind of makes sense and has some safeguards in it to keep the government in check.
But by the same token we expect our law enforcement agencies to investigate and protect us form those who would do us harm. We can't very well expect them to investigate if we don't allow them to have the tools to do investigations, and taking a look at what someone is reading or researching would certainly be one way of investigating them.
"We don't even have to sign a card in the back of the book anymore to leave a permanent record of what we've checked out."
I have also found it somewhat disturbing that for years now, if you purchase a book at the bookstore and pay for it with a credit card, a record is automatically generated as to what you bought. So I have made it a practice for many years that if I purchase a book that in the most remote way could be construed as something other than what it is, I pay cash for it. Fortunately I don't purchase many books that could fall into that category.