Update: "DHS visits student over Little Red Book" report

UPDATE: Report confirmed as hoax, Link to BB update.

There's been much debate online in recent days about the veracity of this story in a Massachussetts newspaper.

According to the article by Standard-Times reporter Aaron Nicodemus, a student at the University of Massachussetts was visited at his parent's home by Homeland Security agents after he requested a collection of Mao Tse-Tung quotes known as "The Little Red Book" via interlibrary loan.

Many questioned whether all of the facts in the story added up. Questions remain — is the assertion that DHS visited the student confirmed as fact? If so, how did DHS obtain the book loan request data? — but here are some reactions from librarians and university officials close to the story. If all of the facts reported are confirmed, as the reporter maintains, it is indeed a troubling story.

Here is a statement from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, lifted from a listserv for librarians:

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth officials are investigating reports that a student at the university was visited by officials from Homeland Security after the student requested a copy of Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book". UMass administrators have interviewed the student who has requested that his identity be shielded, and the University is complying with that request.

At this point, it is difficult to ascertain how Homeland Security obtained the information about the student's borrowing of the book. The UMass Dartmouth Library has not been visited by agents of any type seeking information about the borrowing patterns or habits of any of its patrons and did not handle the request for the book in question. The student has indicated that another university library processed the request.

The UMass Dartmouth library has established policies for handling requests under the Patriot Act and has taken every lawful measure possible to protect the confidentiality of patron records.

The Library subscribes to the American Library Association Library Bill of Rights and was a signatory to the MCCLPHEI (Massachusetts Conference of Chief Librarians of Public Higher Educational Institutions) resolution on the USA Patriots Act submitted to the Massachusetts Civil Liberty Union in 2003.

UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack said, "It is important that our students and our faculty be unfettered in their pursuit of knowledge about other cultures and political systems if their education and research is to be meaningful. We must do everything possible to protect the principles of academic inquiry."

Ann Montgomery Smith

Dean of Library Services

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Library

And here is an item posted on the ILL-L listserv:

We do not believe that the story is a hoax. One of the professors named in the story, Brian Williams, is the son of two of our Stetson University professors. We emailed him about the story being on the ILL listserv and he replied:

"I am delighted to hear that librarians are aware of this outrage. I was wondering if you could possibly give me a link to the site that displayed the story. All is well here in Boston, the story has caused a surge of interest in academic freedoms and I have been inundated with emails from people urging me to teach my class."

Of course, the big question still remains: WHAT was being monitored — the local system or OCLC or what?

Susan Ryan, Associate Director

duPont-Ball Library

Stetson University. DeLand, FL

(Thanks, Sean; and thanks, Kate Sherrill of Ivy Tech Community College in Evansville, Indiana)