[LM_NET] Homeland Security library story

[GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido <ladyhawk@WELL.COM>]

In response to queries and discussions on several lists,, I forward this from 
PUBLIB. Apologies if you have seen it before.

Here is a statement by UMass/Dartmouth, posted to the Law Librarians 
listserv by a Law Firm librarian who contacted UMass.





The following is the UMass Dartmouth statement on the Homeland 
Security issue. 
12/19/2005
CONTACT: John Hoey, 508.999.8027
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth statement regarding 
Homeland Security library issue
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth officials are 
investigating reports that a student at the university was 
visited by officials from Homeland Security after the student 
requested a copy of Chairman Mao™s śLittle Red Bookť. UMass 
administrators have interviewed the student who has requested 
that his identity be shielded, and the University is complying 
with that request.
At this point, it is difficult to ascertain how Homeland 
Security obtained the information about the student™s 
borrowing of the book. The UMass Dartmouth Library has not 
been visited by agents of any type seeking information about 
the borrowing patterns or habits of any of its patrons and did 
not handle the request for the book in question. The student 
has indicated that another university library processed the 
request.
The UMass Dartmouth library has established policies for 
handling requests under the Patriot Act and has taken every 
lawful measure possible to protect the confidentiality of 
patron records.
The Library subscribes to the American Library Association 
Library Bill of Rights and was a signatory to the MCCLPHEI 
(Massachusetts Conference of Chief Librarians of Public Higher 
Educational Institutions) resolution on the USA Patriots Act 
submitted to the Massachusetts Civil Liberty Union in 2003.
UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack said, śIt is 
important that our students and our faculty be unfettered in 
their pursuit of knowledge about other cultures and political 
systems if their education and research is to be meaningful. 
We must do everything possible to protect the principles of 
academic inquiry.™™
Ann Montgomery Smith
Dean of Library Services
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Library
voice 508-999-8664, fax 508-999-8987
asmith@umassd.edu 

    

------- End of forwarded message -------
Merry Holly, GraceAnne

GraceAnne A. DeCandido
Reader Writer Reviewer  New York City
Part-time lecturer in children's and YA literature
Rutgers SCILS PDS

“And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you; not quite as the world sends 
greetings, but with profound esteem, and with the prayer that for you, now 
and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.”
Attr to Fra Giovanni 1513; possibly Greville MacDonald 1930s

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