Madame Librarian: Defending terrorists' privacy while ignoring real repression.

Opinion Journal ^ | February 10, 2006 | Review & Outlook

[plan2succeed.org]

From http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Judith_Krug comes this:

• When the names and photographs were first released, Kathleen Hensman, a public librarian in Delray Beach, Fla., recognized some of the suspected hijackers in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as men who had used the computers in her small library. She immediately called the police. That broke a Florida law that guarantees confidentiality to library patrons. It also violated a cardinal principle of librarians never to tell the police, in absence of a court order, about who uses their rooms and what books they check out. But almost no one thinks Ms. Hensman did the wrong thing. .... Judith Krug, director of the American Library Association's office of intellectual freedom, said, "I would have felt better if she had followed the Florida law."
  • "A Nation Challenged: Questions of Confidentiality; Competing Principles Leave Some Professionals Debating Responsibility to Government," by David E. Rosenbaum, The New York Times, Nov. 23, 2001. Alternate source.

I know what this means to me. What does this mean to all of you?

SafeLibraries.org - Are Children Safe in Public Libraries?

[potlatch]

Thanks for the ping!

[ntnychik]

Kathleen Hensman can sleep well at night. We need more like her.

[potlatch]

Yes, I saw this!

[CyberAnt]

There are no privacy rights in a PUBLIC LIBRARY!

Liberals need to get over it.

[plan2succeed.org]

ntnychik said "Kathleen Hensman can sleep well at night. We need more like her."

There are good librarians. See http://www.safelibraries.org/goodlibrarians.htm.