The Patriot Act and Libaries

Susie Madrak and the Tattered Coat have been blogging about the Patriot Act. I have a few things to say on this myself.

It isn’t the first time the FBI has been looking over people’s shoulders in the library. Like many students, when I was in college I had a part-time job on campus. In my case it was in the library. While I was there the FBI had a program called the FBI Library Awareness Program (here and here). Library workers were to keep an eye open for foreigners wanting to look at certain items. The area I worked in was regarded as low risk so we didn’t think about it much. No one was comfortable with it.

Most libraries don’t keep records of who has checked out what book once the book has been returned (another nifty reason to turn things in early and avoid those pesky overdue fines), so there isn’t that much to be found out by trying to grab someone’s library records. Plus, law enforcement has not needed circulation records to nail people who are up to no good in our public libraries. After all, merely checking a book out of the library is no indication that you have read it, as everyone who has checked out more than one book knows. Traditional police methods have been sufficient to convict at least one woman of murder based on her fingerprints on a particular page of a library book (here and here).

What offends me most about the library sections of the Patriot Act are the way critics of it are treated, specifically the words used to describe librarians with questions. Forms of “hysterical” and “easily led,” are what the Attorney General’s office under John Ashcroft used (here and here). Think about those words. Are doctors hysterical and easily led? Architects? Accountants? Not usually. Would teachers be “hysterical” and “easily led?” Nurses? Homemakers? “Hysterical” is a woman’s word, not only in origin (“wandering womb”) but also in implication. Men may become outraged or angry but they are not hysterical. Children are easily led. Grownups are not. Librarians are overwhelmingly female and Ashcroft’s office chose their words accordingly. That strikes me as slimy.

The freedom to read and learn is a cherished American virtue. Personally, I am grateful for the breadth of material found in our public libraries. At a tender age I checked out “The Wonderful Story of How You Were Born,” a book which cleared up a number of early adolescent misconceptions. Had I suspected the library might be required by law to tell the FBI (or worse, my mother) I had that book, I might still be in the dark about some basic biology.