Liberty, Security, and Indiana Libraries

Abstract

Until recently, most library literature on intellectual freedom and censorship focused on external efforts to restrict access to materials already owned or made accessible by libraries. With 9/11 and the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, the defense of patron privacy and the confidentiality of patron records, long a growing concern, has jumped to the fore. Self-censorship by citizens afraid to exercise their freedom to read out of fear that someone may uncover their reading habits and subject them to social or state sanctions has become a major issue. ("Read" is used throughout this essay for "read, view, listen to, or access.") In legal terms such fears exert a "chilling effect" on the exercise of First Amendment liberties.