"Sometimes our profession has a Knee-Jerk reaction," Darrell Batson, director of the Frederick Public Library (FPL), MD, and president of the Maryland Library Association, told me when I gave him a call. Batson's comment came when I asked about his decision to turn over to the FBI a couple of public access computers from the library as part of a criminal investigation being conducted by the bureau (see News, p. 14). I was surprised and found it so disconcerting, I reflected on it for the next few days. Ultimately, I concluded that it was a good thing that certain values are so fundamental to our profession that their violation triggers a professional knee-jerk reaction.rnCertainly, freedom of expression, free access to information, and the freedom to seek and use the information resources in a library or on the web without fear of surveillance or interference by any authority are among those knee-jerk values.rnFPL, unlike many libraries, has no policy regarding confidentiality of patron use of library computers. Batson said it was his view that no patron records were involved in giving the computers to the feds. Comfortable with his decision, Batson may believe that because the computers were part of the government's investigation of the anthrax murders, his reaction was appropriate.
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