February 18, 2005
Help the ALA help you
The American Library Association is fighting for your right to read whatever the fuck you want. Right now, the FBI can come along and secretly browse through your library record without a warrant or probable cause that a crime has or will be committed. The ALA wants to put a stop to these fishing expeditions.
Reading about terrorists and bomb-making?The FBI may want to know.
The Patriot Act, adopted after 9/11, gives the agency easier access to once-protected library records.
Under the law, the government doesn't need proof that you're a terrorist or suspected of any crime to search library records, officials with the American Library Association said.
With the statute up for review at the end of this year, the ALA's office for Intellectual Freedom is renewing its push to restore the privacy of bookstore and library records.
Judith Krug, director of the ALA's office for Intellectual Freedom, has been traveling the country, gathering signatures to urge a change in the law.
"It's nobody's business but yours what you read," Krug told a group of librarians and civil liberty proponents during an appearance at the Stetson Law Center in Tampa Thursday. "FBI agents can come to the library and invade our circulation records."
The Patriot Act also puts a gag order on booksellers and librarians, making it illegal to reveal that records have been searched, Krug said.
Because of the gag order, nobody knows how many times the FBI has raided library records nationwide, she said.
Learn more and sign the petition.
Get your friends to sign (pdf).
Posted by Norwood at February 18, 2005 05:14 AM