With no fanfare or publicity, the board of the St. Louis (Mo.) Public Library has changed its policy regarding the release to law enforcement of Internet sign-up sheets. Previously considered public information, the sheets have been redefined as private records on a par with circulation records; access to either now requires the possession of a court order, the revised policy states.
The February 3 action was the direct result of a critical January 24 St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial about library Executive Director Glen Holt authorizing the release to an FBI agent on January 14 of two weeks’ worth of the sign-up sheets from the Carpenter branch at the agent’s verbal request—on the same day the agent made the request. The FBI had been following up on a patron complaint about allegedly “suspicious” behavior by a man who seemed to be of Middle Eastern descent using an online workstation December 28.
“We saw the editorial that came out afterwards,” SLPL spokesperson Gerald Brooks said in the March 5 Post-Dispatch, adding that the change was made “on the advice of our counsel.”
Posted March 10, 2003.