Talk : Search engines change access to knowledge : The social context is changing :

Librarians vs. Patriot Act


"It was a moment that librarians had been dreading.

On June 8, 2004, an FBI agent stopped at the Deming branch of the Whatcom County Library System in northwest Washington and requested a list of the people who had borrowed a biography of Osama bin Laden. We said no.

...one of our patrons had sent the FBI the book after discovering these words written in the margin: 'If the things I'm doing is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Hostility toward America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded by God.'

It is our job to protect the right of people to obtain the books and other materials they need to form and express ideas. If the government can easily obtain records of the books that our patrons are borrowing, they will not feel free to request the books they want."

- Joan Airoldi

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-05-17-librarian-edit_x.htm


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Created by rik@cogsci.ucsd.edu 4/12/08