ALA releases full report on law enforcement activity in libraries

Contact: Bernadette Murphy


ALA Washington Communications Director


(202) 628-8410 x. 8236


bmurphy@alawash.org

For Immediate Release:


August 26, 2005

American Library Association (ALA) releases full report on law enforcement activity in libraries

(WASHINGTON, DC) The American Library Association (ALA) today released complete findings from its survey measuring law enforcement activity in America's libraries. Preliminary findings, released in June, revealed that at least 137 legally executed requests by federal and state/local law enforcement in both academic and public libraries have taken place since October, 2001 - 63 legally executed requests for records in public libraries and 74 such requests in academic libraries. The full report of survey findings includes contextual data including responses to interviews and an appendix containing the survey instrument.

Researchers developed a representative sample of more than 1,500 public libraries, of which 33 percent responded to the survey. Of the 4,008 academic libraries invited to participate in the survey, 23 percent responded.

The project was funded with support from the John L. and James S. Knight Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ford Foundation.

The study report can be found online at: http://www.ala.org/oitp.