From the abstract:
Upholding user privacy is one of the highest ethical principles in librarianship and is included in most national library associations’ ethical codes. This paper is an account of how the Library Connection, a Connecticut USA consortium, displayed extraordinary courage to protect their users’ privacy on the Internet. To date, the Library Connection’s successful challenge to the USA PATRIOT Act is the first for the US library community. Based on the Library Connection’s testimony to the United States Senate, this paper will 1) give a step-by-step account of the librarians’ ordeal; 2) will underscore the ethical principles the Library Connection upheld; and 3) discuss what can be learned from their experience.