Cities and Bookstores

One City One Book
Since I've never lived in a city that was holding one of these, I enjoyed getting an introduction to the concept. It was particularly eye-opening to learn the history. If you've asked me before now, I would have sworn that Oprah was behind the whole thing somehow. :-)

I have to admit that I'd never really been grabbed by the idea, and understanding more about the motivations made it much more appealing. Assuming participation is high enough, a OCOB Project means there's a reasonably good chance that you'll have something to discuss with random people in town, despite having very different backgrounds. I was also unaware that these programs went beyond simple readings of the book, and included spin-offs like classes, plays, movie events, and other community activities.

Big Box Bookstores
This session was infuriating. Where does Group Five get off, suggesting that we cut library funding?! I mean, really. It's enough to make me see the appeal of censorship. Somebody needs to kick these whackos out of library school ASAP.

There. I feel much better now.

I was glad that at the very end, the class got around to the idea that maybe we should grab some of these ideas for Libraries rather than making it an either/or proposition. Bring on the Library Coffeshops, I say.

Patriot Act Readings

Patriot Act Section 215
ALA: Resolution on the USA Patriot Act
Bottum: The Library Lie

I'm glad I read these articles in the order that I did: the Patriot Act section in question, then the ALA's response, and then "Library Lies" from SHUSH. It sounds like there's certainly a potential threat to peoples' privacy, but that it's unclear how often, or even whether, the threat will become a reality.

But wait. A quick search for "patriot act libraries" (on Wikipedia, naturally) turned up this citation:

On August 26, 2005, The New York Times reported that according to the ACLU, the FBI is demanding library records from a Connecticut institution as part of an intelligence investigation. This would be the first confirmed instance in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought library records, federal officials and the ACLU said. Interestingly, though, the government did not seek the records under section 215, but instead used "National Security Letters," which are the FISA equivalent of grand jury subpoenas and do not require a court order and thus are easier to use than section 215.

So it appears that the potential may have become real… except that pre-existing rules were used rather than the Patriot Act.

It deeply troubles me that the provision is in place, and I feel that Bottum's semi-suggestion to exempt libraries would be a good first step toward mitigating the situation. A lot of things in government deeply toruble me, though, and time will tell whether the threat of the Patriot Act is real and significant, or largely theoretical. Hopefully we can trust librarians everywhere to raise the alarm (as unnamed sources, if need be) if the secret police do come swooping in.