A coalition of booksellers, publishers, librarians, and writers launched a nationwide campaign today to collect one million signatures in support of legislation to amend the Patriot Act. The groups hope to persuade Congress to restore safeguards for the privacy of bookstore and library records.

The Campaign for Reader Privacy — sponsored by the American Booksellers
Association, the American Library Association and PEN American Center —is
gathering signatures in bookstores, libraries and on this new website,
readerprivacy.org.

At issue is Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which gives the FBI vastly expanded authority to search business records, including the records of bookstores and libraries. “This isn’t about stripping law enforcement of the power to investigate terrorism,” says Larry Siems, director of PEN’s Freedom to Write Program. “It’s about restoring confidence that our reading choices aren’t being monitored by the government.”