"Terror Reading"

[Tim May]

On Friday, August 29, 2003, at 09:46  AM, Steve Schear wrote:

> At 10:48 AM 6/26/2002 -0400, Kathleen Dolan wrote:
>>> In many states, it is illegal to store records showing who borrowed a
>>> book from a public library. Maryland, for example, requires 
>>> destruction of
>>> the record after a point and even backups cannot be accessed without 
>>> a
>>> court order.
>>>
>>> KAD
>>
>> Say a public library implements a policy of replying positively to 
>> all such inquiries, that is, if asked by a patron the db admin will 
>> tell them when their account is free of such inquiries.  If a request 
>> does come in then the db admin can either: fail to respond 
>> (monitoring implied), tell them they are being monitored (violating 
>> the law) or lie and say they are not even if they are.  So, can the 
>> Feds require a librarian to lie to a customer who inquires whether 
>> their library usage is being monitored?
>
> Looks like at least one library is trying a variation the method I 
> suggested...
>
> "The Patriot Act also prohibits libraries and others from notifying 
> patrons and others that an investigation is ongoing. At least one 
> library has tried a solution to "beat the system" by regularly 
> informing the board of directors that there are no investigations. If 
> the director does not notify the Board that there are no 
> investigations, it can serve as a clue that something may be 
> happening. "
>
> http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/1706/1/41
>

This is the "dead librarian switch."

And in these times when the Constitution has been shredded, when 
dissidents are being sent to concentration camps in Cuba, when thought 
criminals who post links to explosives knowledge are in prison, perhaps 
"dead librarian switch" has literal meaning.

I am giving thought to visiting one of my local libraries and 
sauntering up the checkout desk and casually saying "So, what about 
this Patriot Act and librarians narcing us out to Big Brother?"

Then, after hearing her explanation, just as casually saying "Well, I 
hope it never happens. Because if I ever learn that you have narced me 
out, I would of course have to lie in wait until you leave the library 
and then do what needs to be done."

Seriously, maybe librarians need to realize at a gut level that if they 
act as stool pigeons, as narcs, then some of them may pay the same 
price that rats in general sometimes pay.


--Tim May
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you." -- Nietzsche