Patriot Act impact worries state librarians

Picture a small, sleepy municipal library somewhere in rural Maine.

Now picture FBI agents striding through the door, brandishing court orders, demanding of the librarian a list of books checked out by a specific patron.

After the list is secured, one of the agents raises a finger of warning to the librarian: “And remember,” the agent says, “tell no one about this.”

Though perhaps overdramatized, such a scene is possible under a federal law known informally as the Patriot Act, enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The measure is prompting concern among the state’s librarians, who tend to be strongly protective of their patrons’ rights and the confidentiality of patrons’ records.

And rumors about the law and its ramifications have prompted an informal group in Ellsworth to plan a public meeting on the issue tonight.

“It certainly worries me,” said Barbara McDade, director of the Bangor Public Library, on Tuesday. “I think confidentiality of patron records is something we’ve become accustomed to.”

The possibility of federal agents reviewing what a patron has read or researched could intimidate library users, she said.

The new law is designed to expand the powers of federal law enforcement officers in responding to terrorism.

Rumors abound on just what the Patriot Act requires. One rumor – and it is just that, say library officials – is that anyone who asks to see the text of the 300-page act at a library will have his or her name logged by the librarian.

The facts are that a federal agent must have a signed court order requesting information about a patron’s reading habits. The librarian and library administration can consult with a lawyer before complying.

But after complying, the library could not disclose that the request was made.

“That’s very strange,” McDade said of the last provision. “I think everyone is worried about it.”

According to Deputy District Attorney Leane Zainea in Belfast, it is rare under state law that a request for records must be kept quiet.

If, for example, bank records of an embezzlement suspect are sought and police don’t want the suspect to know, a judge must agree to keep the inquiry secret. Usually, Zainea said, a suspect must be notified that records are being requested.

Melora Ranney Norman, who works at the Maine State Library in Augusta, is the state library association’s representative to the American Library Association. She said that, while the ALA has not taken a stance on the Patriot Act, the organization provides extensive information about the law on its Web site.

She is concerned about the implications for libraries.

“A lot of the due process that we had been used to has kind of been brought into question,” Ranney Norman said. “The very secret nature of it” makes it hard for librarians to understand how the law works.

“It puts librarians in a tough position,” she said. Many in Maine are concerned that innocent people will have their reading habits “revealed for no good reason,” or that racial or religious profiling will dictate information requests.

The American Booksellers Association has created a Foundation for Free Expression, which is using the federal Freedom of Information Act to try to learn how many subpoenas have been issued to bookstores, libraries and newspapers, Ranney Norman said.

So far, the U.S. Justice Department has refused to disclose the list of subpoenas.

Steve Norman, director of the Belfast Free Library, agreed that many Maine librarians are still in the dark about what the Patriot Act means for them.

“The library community has not, as a whole, understood this act very well as it relates to libraries,” he said.

Librarians throughout the state will have an opportunity to learn more about the act on Dec. 11. That’s when a seminar on the issue will be held. The Maine State Library’s Linda Lord is coordinating sites in Maine that will have teleconferencing links with the seminar.

“Libraries can and should have procedures in place if someone walks in with a warrant,” Ranney Norman said. All library employees should know what rights the library has when a request for information is made, she said.

The forum on the Patriot Act and related issues will be held 7-9 tonight at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Route 1 in Ellsworth.

Though the forum will tackle the issue in general terms, the library provisions are likely to come up, said an organizer of the event.