8A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
STUDENT FU NEWS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL30, 2003
USA PATRIOT Act provision concerns public libraries
By Lauren Airey
lairey@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Public libraries are a target of the war on terrorism.
If a federal agent came knocking at Watson Library, University of Kansas officials would have to hand over records of who checked out what book even if the federal agents had no probable cause for the search.
A provision in the USA PATRIOT Act is causing threats to public libraries, according to librarians. The provision, passed in 2001, authorizes the FBI to obtain business records based on warrants from secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act courts. These courts do not
require that the government show probable cause after changes instituted by the act.
As a result, public libraries in Illinois and Vermont have posted warning signs that the government could demand access to reading records, and the library wouldn't be able to refuse. Other libraries are deleting patrons' borrowing records as soon as books are returned.
When a book is returned to a library at the University, the record essentially disappears, said Stella Bentley, dean of libraries.
She said the act gave the government the ability to come and ask for records without allowing the library to inform the individual whose records are asked for.
"I don't think most people believe the government has any business finding out what books people are checking out."
Dennis Moore U.S. Representative
"By not having any information around, we don't have anything to give them if they ask for it." Bentley said. "We have done everything we can to protect patron records."
But if a federal agency were to ask for a student's record, while the book was checked out, library
administrators would have to give them the information. The policy of the University libraries is to refer any federal requests for library records to the University Council and let it deal with agents, then abide by what that office recommends.
Brace Flanders; director of the Lawrence Public Library, said the most onerous part of the act was the lack of a process for librarians to talk to anyone about potential visits from law enforcement.
"Librarians are prohibited from talking about it," Flanders said. "That is not a good way for the government to work."
Although Flanders is supportive of the government's efforts to curb possible terrorism, he said
this law was a threat to libraries because people who had a concern about government intrusion would be hesitant to use public libraries.
"If someone from a law enforcement agency came in, we would ask them to produce a valid court order," Flanders said. "But we don't keep much in the way of records, either, intentionally."
Flanders said he was so concerned about the act that he contacted U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kansas) to co-sponsor legislation exempting bookstore owners and libraries from the provision in the act. Moore agreed and is one of 75 co-sponsors of the bill.
A bill was introduced in the
U. S. House of Representatives last month to exempt libraries and booksellers from the provisions of Section 215 of the act.
Under the bill, called the Freedom to Read Protection Act, law enforcement agents could still ask for bookstore and library records but only with evidence of probable cause.
"I was concerned about this bill, the PATRIOT Act, that had been passed before and some of the implications it had on individual civil liberties and freedoms." Moore said. "I don't think most people believe the government has any business finding out what books people are checking out."
College dean releases second rap CD
The Associated Press
UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo.—At Blueberry Hill, photos of famous musicians line the walls; Paul McCartney, Aretha Franklin, Steven Tvler.
— Edited by Julie Jantzer
On a recent night there was another draw at Blueberry Hill. In a concert venue downstairs, tables were crammed and the bar had steady business during the first headlining performance of rapper Henry Biggs, also known as "Headmess."
Dressed from head to toe in black, Biggs and a supporting band of eight, ran through his set.
Was this the same white guy teetering on the edge of 40 who was sitting in his office on the nearby Washington University campus the next day?
It was. Biggs is a dean by day and a rapper at night, and he has just released his second CD.
Biggs said he first became interested in rap when he was in a Greek class in college and a professor spoke about how the performances of ancient hards spinning myths weren't that different from rap music.
Henry Biggs is a dean by day and a rapper at night and has just
released his second CD.
Biggs set out to write songs with social commentary and more diverse ideas than what he was hearing in other hip-hop music.
And he wrote many of his songs as word puzzles.
"I think when you go to a certain vehicle," he said, "it's part of your obligation to respect the language in a certain sense."
Biggs said even his decision to use street language was thought out.
HENRY BIGGS' LYRICS "Check Me Out"
"Got an eye for you mama
come on you know you wanna
Let me get you hotter than a sauna
Me, me, me so dope, so groovy, so
fly for a pale guy
My love's hotter than the Fourth of July
Here's what's really going on:
The song is a lipogram, a form in which one or more letters are left
"Don't mean to brag, don't mean to boast.
But coast to coast they want my butter on that breakfast toast"
out of a written work.
Biggs purposely doesn't use the letter "I" in any of the words in the song. Biggs said the song could be considered something like "the construction worker's lament." He said the more a stereotypical construction worker yelled offensive things at a woman, the more he was usually ignored. He said the more someone asked to be checked out, the more he (the "I," or ego) disappeared.
"By extension, sexually offensive rappers,the song would hold,have the same experience," Biggs explained.
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