Although a report in the July 6 Detroit News indicated Marker would consider challenging Michigan library privacy laws in court if the FOIA requests were rejected, he told American Libraries he did not plan to take action. He also noted that he wasn’t surprised that all the requests were refused: “We were expecting denial,” Marker said, but he declined to comment on the reason he filed the requests in the first place, although the News quoted him as gathering research to create a profile of library users.
“I’m not asking for private information, like what books they check out,” Marker had told the News. “I’m only asking for information that you could get in a telephone book or on the Internet.”
“It’s like protecting who your customers are, who your donors are. You just don’t release that kind of information,” said Christine Lind Hage, director of the Clinton-Macomb Public Library, who received and denied Marker’s request. “Libraries are very protective of that privacy because we feel very strongly that people should not be afraid to ask for or seek out information.”
Posted July 9, 2004.