USA Patriot Act and Libraries
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 is the full name of the USA Patriot Act. This act has passed through the U.S. Congress after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the goal of the act is to enhance American authorities for the purpose of fighting terrorism. Not only this act grants authority to corresponding entities to detect terrorism both within the U.S. and abroad, but it also is aimed to detect any potential risks. This way, government agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have legal access to any database throughout the country. Any information that can be valuable to the agencies in their search for terrorism threat becomes subject to thorough inspection, regardless of how sensitive or private this information might be. Library databases became one of the objects that interested the FBI the most, which is why librarians exhibited discontent with Patriot Act, calling it “library provision.” 
Section 215 of the Patriot Act is the one that allows agents to obtain access to library records of clients investigating in the near past about any information connected with spying, crime, or international terrorism. This section appeared to be the most controversial in the entire act, because there is not a single mention of the word “library” or “bookstore.” The section referred to business records, and other general tangible business items. Librarians claimed that this “library provision” violated the privacy rights of patrons, but Justice Department defended the section. However, the first instance when the FBI sought library records was in Connecticut on August 26, 2005, more than four years after the attacks.
In addition to book records, the FBI also has access to computer use records. Law enforcement demands libraries to install special software to keep track of usage of terminals. Why they need this software installed is because they cannot track identity of a person surfing the web from a public computer. Once they have logs from internet server, they can track the computer in the other side. Those who query the server from homes are unlikely to be involved in criminal activity, but those that wish to remain unidentified would probably go to a library and use a public computer. Thus, enforcement requires dates, exact time, and sign-up records if they are available. However, since some or all of these are many a time unavailable, the best option is to install special surveillance soft. 
It is worth mentioning that under California Government Code section 6267 libraries have no right to disclose patrons’ registration information, as well as any other data, unless directly permitted by patron, or is solicited with a court order. Thus, all inspections implemented by enforcement must be with an order from a superior court, and it is the responsibility and obligation of librarians to make sure the surveillance is implemented under court order. 
At the same time, life of all Americans was affected by the Al-Qaeda attacks, and therefore many U.S. citizens wanted to learn more about the Middle East culture, international terrorism, and related topics. Naturally, people were shocked by the attacks and were interested in the reasons, and tried to research and find the reasons and links.