A welcome contribution to the NSA spying debate has been ALA's official entry into the fray. In an open letter to ALA members on July 11, current president Barbara Stripling announced the launch of a new website called ALA Liberty dedicated to providing tools libraries can use to educate the public about privacy issues and help people understand their Fourth Amendment rights.
In her open letter, linked on the ALA site, Stripling noted that ALA was "saddened by recent news that the government has obtained vast amounts of personal information and electronic communications of millions of innocent people." She further invoked ALA's history of activism around the 2001 Patriot Act and added that libraries, as "one of the few trusted American institutions...have the tools, resources and leaders that can teach Americans about
their civil liberties and help our communities discuss ways to improve
the balance between First Amendment rights and government surveillance
activities."
ALA has joined other civil liberties groups such as the ACLU, Center for Constitutional Rights, Electronic Frontier Foundation and many others, in calling on Congress launch a congressional investigative committee, similar to the Church Committee of the 1970s, to investigate domestic spying.
