Libraries here are posting warnings to patrons that Big Nanny can watch your library habits - including the Websites you visit on library computers as well as the books you check out - under the Patriot Act.
"Our concern about the Patriot Act," city councilman Mike Rotkin told KCBS, "is that it really takes away constitutional rights that people have to privacy, and a number of the Bill of Rights. The federal government can come in and get lists of who's been checking out what books, who's been going to what places on the Internet, things like that. We think that really has a chilling effect on people's right to get information, which shouldn't really be happening."
The reason for the signs? Librarians are barred under the Patriot Act from telling patrons if their records have been accessed, KCBS said, so Santa Cruz libraries are hanging up signs telling them it's a possibility. And the city librarian uses an end-run of a kind around the Act: she tells each monthly board meeting there have been no search warrants served. If she doesn't make the announcement, KCBS said, that's the hint that Big Nanny has asked about someone.
