acrlblog.org/2005/12/19/interlibrary-loan-causes-a-stir
Agents Visit Chills UMass Dartmouth Senior, published in the Stan dard-Times, a daily that serves Dartmouth, New Bedford, and other Southc oast Massachusetts towns. Professors told a reporter that one of their s tudents had been visited by Homeland Security agents after requesting a copy of Maos Little Red Book through interlibrary loan. The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Profes sor Pontbriands class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a for m for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social S ecurity number. He was later visited at his parents home in New Bedfor d by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said. The professors said the student was told by the agents that t he book is on a watch list, and that his background, which included s ignificant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student furth er. Williams said he had been planning to offer a course on terrorism ne xt semester, but is reconsidering, because it might put his students at risk. I shudder to think of all the students Ive had monitoring al-Q aeda Web sites, what the government must think of that, he said. This story roused my curiosity because if true, its appalling. The idea that even the threat of surveillance would cause a professor to reconsider what he teaches is chilling indeed. But there were some oddities that made me want to know more. It seemed stra nge, for instance, that a library would ask for a students social secur ity number on an interlibrary loan form; I looked at the UMass Dartmouth librarys Web site and, sure enough, it doesnt. Though they arent contesting t he students claim, and they are protecting his identity at his request, they offer some reassurance that their library, at least, didnt partic ipate in violating the students rights. The student says he made the re quest through another library, unnamed. The rest of the UMass Dartmouth statement goes on: The UMass Dartmouth library has established policies for handling reques ts under the Patriot Act and has taken every lawful measure possible to protect the confidentiality of patron records. The Library subscribes to the American Library Association Library Bill of Rights and was a signatory to the MCCLPHEI (Massachusetts Conference of Chief Librarians of Public Higher Educational Institutions) resolut ion on the USA Patriots Act submitted to the Massachusetts Civil Libert y Union in 2003. UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Jean F MacCormack said, It is important tha t our students and our faculty be unfettered in their pursuit of knowle dge about other cultures and political systems if their education and r esearch is to be meaningful. Many blogge rs commenting so far dont seem aware of the fact that libraries dont p articipate in surveillance willingly and short of a court order or Natio nal Security Letter would never report on a students reading habits.
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