Concern over the new federal privacy law prompts a presentation by a local attorney.
By Scott Taylor
Staff Writer

POLAND – Big Brother is not knocking on the door of the Ricker Memorial Library. Not yet, anyway.

But Library Director Linda Hayman wants to be ready if federal agents do show up at her library demanding patron information.

“We’re a small library,” she said. “We haven’t had anybody here asking about a patron’s habits, but I guess it is a real possibility. We just want to know what we have to do.”

Hayman is one of the many librarians in Maine studying the ramifications of the USA Patriot Act, a law passed by the Congress in October 2001, just weeks after Sept. 11. Hayman and the library are sponsoring a presentation on the act by Auburn attorney Leonard Sharon on May 20.

The act gives sweeping new authority to police to gather information about citizens and suspects. Critics, including the Maine Library Association and the Maine Civil Liberties Union, say the act erodes individual rights.

The law requires libraries to hand over patron information to federal agents upon request. That includes lists of books checked out and Internet use logs on library computers. Librarians are forbidden to tell patrons if their information has been requested.

“Beyond the library, there are provisions of this act that are very scary,” Sharon said. “If they want to search my house and they have a warrant, they can do it without notifying me. If they want a wiretap, they can have it follow me wherever I go.”

Hayman said she currently wouldn’t surrender patron information without a valid warrant. Sharon said she might be breaking the law.

“My understanding is that they do not need a warrant to find out what books someone is reading,” Sharon said.

The Justice Department states that it cannot get library records without showing probable cause. The Maine Civil Liberties Union agrees with Sharon, however, saying that the act does give them that right.

“There is just a lot that’s not known at this point,” Hayman said. “There are a lot of provisions to study, and that’s why we want to hear from an attorney.”

Some libraries have started changing their policies in response. Hayman said she currently tracks the books all Ricker patrons have read during the last year. But both Lewiston and Auburn public libraries purge that data from their records.

“Once they turn a book back in and someone else checks it out, that bumps off the first record,” Lewiston Library Director Rick Speer said. “We keep very little of that kind of information now, and we are looking at what we log for computer use.”

Roe Waltos, director of the Auburn Library, said she plans to attend Sharon’s presentation.

“We looked at our policies and we feel confident that our patrons are pretty well covered, but there is a lot more to it,” Waltos said. “It does deserve another look.”

staylor@sunjournal.com