"In Time of War" by Patti Becker

This article, much more so than her first article, outlined clearly what kind of relationship the government had with libraries during WWII, and I think it was basically a condensed and more precise version of the longer article we read. That said, there is not much new to say about this article besides its mention of FBI and library collaboration. Where in the last article it did not seem so harmful to me that the OFF had wanted information on the public’s opinions on the war, it was extremely harmful in my mind that the FBI wanted the names of people who requested certain books. But then it occurred to me, what kind of serious internal threat to the United States would be looking for their subversive material in the library? I doubt that domestic terrorists would actually request books on “explosives, secret inks, and ciphers.” More likely, I think, kids up to mischief or simply inquisitive kids would look for that kind of information in their local libraries.

It did bother, me, however, that while some librarians apparently did not want to comply with the FBI, their reasoning was based on practical matters. I may be futilely optimistic, but I do not believe that this nation’s founders wished their government to infringe upon intellectual freedom in any sense. Indeed, Ben Franklin’s famous phrase about the relationship of liberty and safety sum up their viewpoint. The American founder created a new nation because their government restrained their intellectual freedoms and personal liberty. The idea that one must use unsavory methods to protect wholesome ideals will never make any sense to me, and I wonder why librarians simply as conscious American citizens did not more vocally oppose such an intrusion upon their patron’s personal information during WWII.