Anonymous Patron writes “The Patriot Act has made the antiwar, mask-wearing, WTO-hating, riot-at-the-drop-of-a-hat crowd more paranoid than ever.
The issue had turned into a hot potato for rogue librarians across the nation. Some were reportedly so frazzled by the thought of the Feds kicking down their doors that they destroyed many library records themselves. Apparently, librarians are an excitable bunch who, when pushed to the edge, aren’t afraid to take the law into their own hands. Thank goodness they use their powers for good rather than evil.
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Whoops, My Bad
I thought this article was hilarious upon first reading. After all, it is April 1st, and given the article’s tone of contempt and derision towards anybody who objects to any part of the USAPA, I automatically assumed it was a brilliant lampoon of such fire-breathing conservative rags as Frontpage Magazine or National Review.
Of course, then I noticed the URL, and realized it actually WAS Frontpage. So now I have the sinking feeling the author may have actually been perfectly serious when they wrote this insulting drivel.
Re:Whoops, My Bad
I wonder what “law” these ‘rogue librarians’ are taking into their own hands? Just as there is not privledge between a patron and librarian, there are no laws about how long a library has to maintain records, unless I am seriously misinformed. I believe library records are kept for the library’s purposes, mainly for the purpose of recovering items borrowed. Once the items borrowed have been returned safely, why track the actual patron record associated with books at all? I know many circ systems don’t, why use up the memory space. Seems logical to me, and if that causes any hardship for the Patriot Act folks, I’m sure it would just break every librarian’s heart.
I vehemently disagree with the spin
Put on this write-up. I’d like a law pointed out to me that librarians have broken. Destroying records is not illegal, even if it makes spies and cops jobs harder. That is the point. If we wanted cops jobs to be easy, we’d allow them to torture out confessions (oh wait, the US farms out that work), or just assume guilt (wait, for many things that is true in the US)… Hrmm, never mind. I guess if you want to call something illegal just for the hell of it, you’re in good company.
— Ender, Duke_of_URL
Re:I vehemently disagree with the spin
Who said librarians had broken any laws? The article did use the line “take the law into their own hands” but that is different than breaking the law.
I do think that the word “excitable” is appropriate for librarians that are preemptively destroying library records because of the Patriot Act.
Re:I vehemently disagree with the spin
In fact, in most if not all states, library records are confidential, and librarians do have a legal (as well as an ethical) obligation to protect the privacy of those records.
Ashcroft and the Justice Dept. have responded to every effort to discuss the impact of the so-called “PATRIOT ACT” on libraries and First Amendment rights by describing librarians as “hysterical” and/or dupes of the evil ACLU. We have no idea whether or not the Patriot Act has ever been used to obtain library records; a memo expressing the official line of the DOJ is not especially persuasive in light of the fact that the Patriot Act itself makes it a crime for any library that may have been served under the Patriot Act to contradict that assertion. Is this good? Are you sure? Is any discussion of this automatically “hysteria”?
In its present form, the DOJ only has to assert to a court that it needs access to someone’s library records; it doesn’t have to provide the supporting evidence normally required for a subpoena. Is this good? Are you sure? Is any discussion of this automatically “hysteria”?
Ashcroft is also pushing for the passage of Patriot II, which would relieve DOJ even of the necessity of making the assertion of need to a court; it would give them the power to issue administrative subpoenas–with the same felony penalties for any librarian that afterwards revealed that they’d received such a subpoena. Is this good? Are you sure? Is any discussion of this automatically “hysteria”?
And, btw, “taking the law into one’s own hands” does generally refer to actions that might possibly be legal if legal authorities did them with appropriate due process, but which are illegal when undertaken on a “self help” basis by people not willing to wait for the legal authorities to act, or accept the fact that there’s no legal basis for such action. As used in this article, it’s factually wrong and intelluctually dishonest: There is no requirement that library circulation records be kept after the loaned item is returned, but there is, although Mr. Thibault is apparently too ignorant to know it, a legal obligation in most states for librarians to protect the privacy of library patrons with respect to what they choose to borrow.