In a message dated 02/12/2002 12:54:44 GMT Standard Time,
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 "EXTREME DISQUIET" AT U.S. PROPOSALS TO MONITOR BORROWED LIBRARY BOOKS

 CILIP supports American Library Association opposition to Total Information
Awareness system

 Proposals to monitor borrowed library books, under the Bush Administration's
Total Information Awareness System, should give cause for extreme disquiet,
says CILIP's Chief Executive Bob McKee.  "Uniquely among public services,
libraries are trusted as places where people can pursue their interests and
their quest for knowledge free from interference and in complete privacy," Dr
McKee says.  "There is no place there for Big Brother."

 Under the proposals, reported in both the US and UK media, the US Defence
Advanced Research Projects Agency would fund the development of technologies
that would eventually allow the Government to track large numbers of online
transactions - including book borrowing - and provide data that could
identify possible terrorist activity.  The American Library Association has
joined some 50 other organisations urging US Senators to stop the development
of this "unconstitutional system of public surveillance".

 "We in the UK should also make our voices heard against the US proposal, Dr
McKee says.  "And we should certainly voice our opposition were there any
move to introduce a similar system here."

 At the recent CILIP Awards Gala Ceremony in London, guest speaker Martin
Bell, the former MP and journalist, said that if the NHS was the guardian of
the nation's health, then libraries were the guardians of its sanity.  To
compromise the privacy that libraries offer all citizens is to risk the
destruction of that unique role.

 Not even the serious threat of terrorism is sufficient justification for
making libraries an instrument of indiscriminate state scrutiny, CILIP
affirms.  The Chair of CILIP's Ethics Panel, Bernard Naylor, says: "The
courts should protect libraries from 'fishing expeditions' mounted by the
police or security services, which should be required to justify their
actions in the rare cases when the evidence is sufficiently compelling as to
justify an exception."

 Contact:   Tim Owen, Head of External Relations
            Tel: 020 7255 0652. Email: [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>


 Notes to Editors

 CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is
the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and
knowledge managers, with around 23,000 members working in all sectors,
including business and industry, science and technology, further and higher
education, schools, local and central government, the health service, the
voluntary sector, national and public libraries.

 CILIP's goals are to: position the profession at the heart of the
information revolution; develop and enhance the role and skills of all its
Members; present and champion those skills, together with new ones which will
be acquired through continuing professional development; and ensure that
individuals, enterprises and not for profit organisations have ready and
timely access to the information they need.

 - Ends -