[WEB4LIB] RE: FBI to monitor libraries

[Griffin, Jackie]

Thank you, Scott.  Especially for that last point.
We are all frightened by what happened on Sept. 11...but, if that terrible
event leads us to do away with every freedom, every law that makes the US
what
it is...then Osama bin Ladin and his ilk have won just as surely as if they
did poison our resovoirs.
Libraries are about the idea that anyone, no matter how rich, how poor, no
matter their color or sex, could walk into a building and find the answers
to
their questions without fear. 
We play an enormously important role in the world of freedom of speech.  No
one else is doing exactly what we do in that area.  And, we do it very well.

I don't want to give up doing that to be law enforcement.  There are already
well trained (ok, maybe not) people doing that.  But, there is no one doing
what we do.
And, for us to give it up in order to play informant will do far more harm
to
us as a country than the good that can be acheived by turning over every
Middle Easterner who asks the "wrong" question.

Jackie

Jackie Griffin
Director of Library Services
Berkeley Public Library
Berkeley. CA
510-644-6095

>>> Scott Furciniti 06/04/02 10:40AM >>>
In response to Marks 4 points.

1.  True, a small handful of young Middle Eastern men
committed this attrocity.  It's also true that
millions of young Middle Eastern men had nothing to do
with it, and were just as shocked and angered by 9/11
as you or I.  Let's also remember that the OK City
bombing was perpetrated by a caucasian ex-US Marine. 
Should we start asking for the military background of
our patrons?

2.  Again, true.  There is indeed a fanatical fringe
of young Middle Eastern men that would like to do this
again.  And again, there is the vast majority that
wouldn't.  And again, there are probably more Tim
McVeighs and Ted Kazinskis out there too.

3.  Again, true.  But the trained terrorists already
have plenty of information on how to create these
weapons.  What's holding them back is obtaining the
fissionable or poisonous materials necessary to create
the weapons.  These materials cannot be obtained in
Libraries.

4.  Again, true.  But there were probably millions of
young Middle Eastern men who used public library
computers for legitmate research, playing games, or
finding porn (if their libraries don't filter).

Public libraries that offer computer access must NOT
profile their users, any more than they should profile
patrons who check out Mein Kampf, the Communist
Manifesto, or technical materials on nuclear reactors.

If we use the "war" against terrorism to justify
profiling for young Middle Eastern men, what next? 
Should we use our "war" against drugs to profile young
Latino men.  Who's to say that they aren't using
library computers to e-mail their contacts in Central
and South America?

If we start becoming suspicious of and perhaps fearing
to deal with people just because they fit a certain
profile, then the terrorists will have already won
part of their war.  

Scott Furciniti, Systems Administrator
Roswell Public Library

--- Mark Wright <markfwright at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >To answer the previous question...if I had a map of
> the water resevoirs in 
> >my community and 3 Middle Eastern men asked me for
> it, I would give it to 
> >them
> >and think no more of it.  To do what was suggested,
> is to profile.  I don't 
> >believe in it for the police, I don't believe in it
> for me.
> >I will follow the law. But, I will fight against
> those laws.  And, I
> >definitely won't help our country become the kind
> of place where we inform 
> >against each other out of fear.
> 
> Profiling is ugly, no two ways about it, but there's
> a big difference 
> between profiling for drug dealers and profiling for
> terrorists who'd like 
> nothing better than to nuke American cities. There's
> a valid argument about 
> the former, but no thinking individual could argue
> against the latter. For 
> those of you who would still argue that profiling is
> wrong in such cases, 
> see if you can dispute these facts:
> 
> 1. All of the 9/11 terrorists were young men of
> Middle Eastern/Arabic 
> ethnicity.
> 
> 2. There are more of them out there who would like
> to attack us again.
> 
> 3. They would love to get their hands of weapons of
> mass destruction, so 
> they could use them against our cites.
> 
> 4. Some of the 9/11 terrorists used public computers
> in libraries to 
> communicate with each other.
> 
> I say that every library that makes computers
> available to the public MUST 
> profile to some degree, because the potential
> consequences of not doing so 
> are just too horrible. This doesn't mean we
> shouldn't serve Arabic 
> individuals to the best of our ability. We have them
> in my library nearly 
> every day and aside from simply observing them a
> little more carefully than 
> I did before, I try not to treat them any
> differently. But it does mean that 
> we should quietly be on the lookout for red flags,
> and if we see one, err on 
> the side of caution and contact the authorities. You
> owe it to the millions 
> of Americans who could die if you don't.
> 
> >This is a very serious professional question that
> warrants continual
> >examination and discussion. Just what is the
> librarians professional
> >obligation to answer a question? When can a
> librarian ethically refuse to 
> >answer a question?
> 
> Agreed, which is why I'm writing. I hate to see
> librarians with knee-jerk 
> reactions against profiling simply because it is
> distasteful. In wartime we 
> often have to do distasteful things. This whole
> issue deserves lots of 
> discussion, and there are no easy answers when it
> comes to where we draw the 
> line. But if I could choose between informing on an
> innocent man and causing 
> him hardship, and not informing on a man who later
> went on to nuke a city, 
> I'd chose the former in a heartbeat.
> 
> Mark Wright
> Andover, MA
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
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