Leigh Estabrook is the director of the Library Research Center, a unit of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. The center has conducted dozens of studies, including a series on the impact of the PATRIOT Act on libraries. Estabrook was the dean of the library school from 1986 to 2001. She was interviewed by News Bureau writer Andrea Lynn.
The USA PATRIOT Act (“Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”) expands the authority of U.S. law enforcement’s surveillance and investigative powers regarding terrorism and other crimes. This expanded legal authority has been used to subpoena information from libraries about patrons’ use of materials and the Internet, which challenges libraries’ historical support of intellectual freedom, public access to information and privacy. Major provisions of the Act have been extended for a second five-week period (to March 10) as congress continues to discuss making the Act permanent.
Why have librarians been so vocal about some of the provisions of the Patriot Act?
Libraries have two concerns. First the Patriot Act allows law enforcement to request information about the materials library users are reading and about individuals who use Internet terminals at the library without having to provide specific reasons for these investigations. Second, if a library is asked for patron records, that library is not legally allowed to tell the patron, or anyone else, that law enforcement has asked for that information. A current appeal of that law is John Doe v. Gonzalez.
Libraries worry that these provisions cause a chilling effect on library use: that readers will be too fearful to explore all sides of a particular issue. If I read or search on the library’s Internet for information about Al Qaeda, for example, will the FBI investigate me as a possible terrorist? Forty-eight states have laws protecting the privacy of library records. The laws are based on a belief that the purpose of libraries is to encourage inquiry and to protect people’s freedom to read.
What have your surveys uncovered about the impact of the Patriot Act on libraries?
Librarians are divided in both their opinions and in the types of policies they are implementing. Some said in a survey shortly after 9/11 that they feel it is their obligation to cooperate with law-enforcement requests, even without a court order for patron records. An equal number strongly opposed voluntary compliance. Also at that time, well before the Patriot Act was an issue in the public consciousness, 10 percent of the librarians noted that users had expressed concern about their privacy.
Libraries are one of the few public spaces that provide Internet terminals for public use. This may not be important to the University of Illinois community, but it is vitally so to the poor and elderly, many of whom do not have easy access to computing. Since the 1930s librarians and their professional voice, the America Library Association, have been passionate about their commitment to providing free and open access to information in the belief that that role is essential to our democracy.
What are libraries doing to balance rights of individuals and provisions of the Patriot Act?
Librarians struggle with this. Since the advent of computerized circulation systems, most design their systems to delete the records of what users have borrowed once a book, DVD or other item is returned. Now some are concerned about whether the books people have requested from other libraries sit on an open shelf where others can see what people are borrowing.
Since it was at a public library’s Internet terminal in Florida that one of the individuals involved in the 9/11 attacks apparently obtained information, librarians have given greater attention to Internet use. Some now require photo identification to register for Internet use and may keep search records. At least one library is using fingerprint identification. Some librarians have gone to the other extreme. They are using only paper sign-up sheets when necessary and then shredding those sheets at the end of the day.
And because librarians are not allowed to let their users know if law enforcement has requested information about their patrons, some libraries have adopted the strategy of posting signs that say, “The FBI has not visited us today (please note if this sign is removed).”
