There is now another version of this story about a Dartmouth student who received a visit from Homeland Security after requesting an original version of Mao’s Little Red Book. The latest version takes place at University of California/Santa Cruz and mentions History Professor Bruce Levine. I emailed Levine to see if he could verify the story, but my email was the first he’d heard about it. He was a bit amused, as his specialty is Civil War history, and curious about his name got tacked on to the story. ALA’s Public Information Office is digging into the story as well. More details as they become available!
Update: 12/19 22:45 GMT by R :Jessamyn contacted the reporter of the original, Dartmouth story, and he’s trying to confirm what he heard from the sources. What’s clear is that the UCSC version of the story is a total rip-off of the Dartmouth story. Here’s a cached page explaining that the UCSC story was bogus, and removed at the request of one of the professors mentioned in the story.
Thank Goodness!
I’ve been searching all day for info on this story. It seems REALLY fishy. I was one step away from contacting the libraries directly. Although if you do visit their webpage you can see that they DO NOT ask for SSN on ILL forms. The form can be downloaded from the library website.
This story has been all over every one of my library lists all day which is quite frustrating from a group of individuals that are more than capable of critical thinking and conducting research.
Urban Legend
Sounds like a rumor or urban legend or just
a really fun way to score media attention…
spread of course speedy fast by the internet!
Let’s start one about the high standard salaries,
great promotions and perks librarians receive!
Oh yeah…how librarians saved the world by providing
that key info at a crucial moment…
Except that one is probably true!
UMass Mao library book story is a hoax
Daily Kos blog reports:
NEW BEDFORD — The UMass Dartmouth student who claimed to have been visited by Homeland Security agents over his request for “The Little Red Book” by Mao Zedong has admitted to making up the entire story.
The 22-year-old student tearfully admitted he made the story up to his history professor, Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, and his parents, after being confronted with the inconsistencies in his account.
http://www.dailykos.com/hotlist/add/2005/12/24/317 17/786/main//