Librarians have long defended the freedom to read, the freedom of Americans to use their libraries, public and academic, in pursuit of knowledge and information. A strong defense of these freedoms is clearly evident today in libraries across the country. So much so, it seems we librarians have raised the ire of Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Why would librarians so often characterized (undeservedly) as the mild mannered "shushing" types be noticed by the attorney general?

It has to do with the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Ob?struct Terrorism), passed a month after Sept. 11, 2001. Given the mood of the country and Congress at that point, this act passed with little debate and equally little scrutiny.

As law, the PATRIOT Act allows library and bookstore records to be searched upon presentation of a search warrant or a subpoena, without probable cause that a crime has been committed. This act violates patron confidentiality rights that librarians have defended as a principle of the code of library ethics. To quote the American Librarian Association (ALA) Code of Ethics: "We protect each library user's right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted." While we expect that measures need to be in place to help the FBI prevent terrorism, the changes should not come at the expense of our privacy.

Personally, I have encountered challenges to this confidentiality a couple of times in my career as an academic librarian. In both cases faculty members wanted to know what materials were checked out by their students. One wanted the list of all class members who had used reserve materials, the other wanted to see if a particular student was telling the truth that he had used the materials. Only in the latter case, when the student asked for his own record to show the faculty member, was the information divulged.

It is not outside the realm of possibilities that Swem Library could be asked for this information. We are located in an area with a large concentration of military operations, and in the weeks following Sept. 11, Swem and other regional libraries were visited by the FBI with pictures of several of the terrorists.

The library profession as a whole has taken a strong stance against the PATRIOT Act, using our lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., and also creating awareness among librarians, library users and the general public. On the local front we have worked with our colleagues at the Marshall-Wythe Law Library and the Williamsburg Regional Library to develop procedures on how to respond, should we get such a query from the FBI or other government agents.

We have also examined how we store patron information. We remove confidential information about circulation records as soon as possible. Obviously that information is linked while the item is checked out, but once it returns, we purge the patron information. We can still track how many times a particular book has been checked out, but we will no longer know "who" checked it out.

The PATRIOT Act forbids the library from revealing if it has been visited by the FBI. Staff may contact their supervisors and we would, in our case, contact university counsel. But beyond that we would not be able to publicly indicate that we had a re?quest for patron information. Various libraries across the country have posted signs in the library reading, "The FBI did not visit the library today."

There are recent efforts to change these invasive procedures. Bernie Sanders, Vermont's at-large representative, voted against the PATRIOT Act along with 66 representatives and one senator. In March 2003 he introduced HR 1157, the Freedom to Read Protection Act to revise section 215 of the Act and return the government's ability to search library records to pre-PATRIOT Act standards. The momentum for support of this resolution has grown as the public and the press have learned more about the impact of the Act.

Protecting the confidentiality of those who use our libraries further supports the academic freedoms of a campus to teach, explore and discover the world around us. It's an issue librarians care about and will vigilantly defend.