The battle to protect and preserve the constitution of the US, that is.
One of the more fascist elements of the Patriot Act grants government officials vastly increased powers to demand information regarding a library patron’s activities. Examples include what books they checked out, what web sites they visited and so on. Furthermore, libraries are banned from informing patrons who are under investigation.
The ultimate victory, recognition and then correction of the flaws related to the Patriot act, won’t happen for some time to come. Meanwhile true patriots, many of them librarians, are doing the best they can today to protect their patrons’ rights.
In New Jersey, attendees at a conference of librarians learned the following techiques:
# Install software that clears the Internet history off a computer when it is shut off.
# Delete information on borrowed books once a patron returns them.
# Shred the sign-up sheets of users of Internet service at the end of each day.
According the this NY Times article, the Santa Cruz, CA library now uses a paper shredder to destroy patron information on a daily basis.
The American Library Association has issued a Freedom to Read policy statement, which affirms the that the flip-side of the the 1st amendment’s write to speak is the write to hear(read) without government abridgement of that right.
US lawmakers, led by Bernie Sanders (I, Vt), have introduced a bill designed to “protect libraries, bookstores and their patrons from unjustified government surveillance into what books Americans are reading and buying, and what websites they may be visiting when using a library computer.”
The Alameda County Library Advisory Commission approved a resolution supporting the aforementioned bill before congress.
United we stand.