LETTER TO THE EDITORS

The April F News article "Library Spies and Invisible Art" mentions Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which "Permits the FBI to compel production of library circulation records, Internet use records, and registration information stored in any medium."

Since the Flaxman Library was not interviewed for this story, we are concerned that our patrons might not know the steps we have taken to avoid such a situation.

The Flaxman Library and its consortium, ILCSO, do not retain any patron histories in its databases. We keep only what is required to track current circulation of our items. Should the FBI demand information about any of our students' reading habits, we would be unable to provide such a record. Also, we were, at one time, required to use social security numbers to track our patrons in the database. This is no longer required and we have taken steps to remove the numbers that we once had.

We will continue to monitor the situation with the Patriot Act, and other possible privacy risks, with concern for all of our patrons' rights. For more information about library issues in the current political environment, see the American Library Association at http://www.ala.org.

Thank you, Marcy Neth Reader Services Librarian