The Santa Cruz (Calif.) Public Libraries have posted signs warning users that the government may be monitoring their borrowing records under the USA Patriot Act.
The board voted March 3 to post this message at the 10 county branches and on its Web site: “Warning: Although the Santa Cruz Library makes every effort to protect your privacy, under the federal USA Patriot Act (Public Law 107-56), records of the books and other materials you borrow from this library may be obtained by federal agents. That federal law prohibits library workers from informing you if federal agents have obtained records about you.”
In the resolution ordering the posting, the board also called for the state’s congressional delegation to support legislation to exempt libraries and booksellers from those parts of the act that infringe on constitutional rights and to increase congressional oversight. Such a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives March 6.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported March 11 that Santa Cruz Chief Librarian Anne Turner found a way to circumvent the Patriot Act’s gag order forbidding staff from disclosing that a search warrant was served: “At each board meeting I tell them we have not been served by any [search warrants],” she said. “In any months that I don’t tell them that, they’ll know.”
Posted March 17, 2003.