So how helpful will circulation software be when G-men come to visit? LibraryPlanet.com gives one librarian’s perspective. Interesting fact: Some forgetful patrons actually wanted their reading habits recorded over the long run so they’d know if they were reading the same book again. But at least one library software maker never enabled that feature, presumably with privacy concerns in mind.
The TeleRead take: Yes, TeleRead could be designed with privacy protections. At same time I can also see the FBI’s side on the need to track down cyberterrorists before they grow too smart about dams and air-traffic control routines. If the feds can go through due process and have specific people in mind–well, that would would be different from frivolous searches and routine monitoring of Americans’ reading habits. As noted, too, terrorists actually did use one of my favorite library branches, Sherwood Regional, right there in Fairfax County, VA, perhaps to communicate with their fellow jihadists.
Just the same, I’m delighted that librarians consider this a gut issue and are skeptical. Much of the crucial information isn’t even in libraries but on the Net–including perhaps the dam and air-traffic information. What’s more, everyone knows how leaky FBI files can be, and millions of Americans remember the old McCarthy-era abuses. As I hazily recall–it’s been decades–an old family friend was even driven out of a midwestern town because the neighbors perceived her as too “liberal.” Were the feds checking out Raphie Lou’s reading habits? Never know what and who might offend.
J. Edgar Hoover actually feared Albert Einstein as a subversive. So what happens if among us we have an Arab-American Einstein who is thoroughly loyal–to the U.S.–and just happens to have a passion for friendly biographies of Saladin? Someday will a Big Brotherish computer go through the circulation records of a public or university library and flag our friend as a security risk?
If nothing else, the usual concerns arise about the use of sensitive information in, say, divorce cases, given the leakiness of files. Pity the beleaguered spouse who checks out Lolita at the wrong time.
