ACT (CONT)

at Dartmouth and president of the Massachusetts Conference of Chief Librarians of Public Higher Educational Institutions.

At her university library, Smith changed the computer system so that lending records are erased as soon as a book is returned.

The US Department of Justice says that such alarm over the Patriot Act is unfounded. Attorney General John Ashcroft, in Boston in September on a nationwide speaking tour to rally support for the legislation, said critics misrepresent the law.

Federal law enforcement officials in Massachusetts have said that they rarely, if ever, use the most controversial provisions of the act -- such as the measure allowing federal agents to secretly subpoena library records, or "sneak-and-peek" warrants that allow investigators to conduct a secret search.

Those assertions have done little to allay the increasing anxiety over the Patriot Act, which in New England has drawn in equal measures on strains of Yankee independence, social libertarianism, and liberal progressivism.

In New Hampshire last week, the Legislature began debating a bill to nullify the Patriot Act, sponsored by four Republican representatives who see the legislation as part of a larger trend of federal law overwhelming the independence of states.

The Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union is quietly paving the way for a statewide resolution, said Nancy Murray, who follows the issue for the union. Murray said that as more and more municipalities pass resolutions, state lawmakers will be compelled to follow suit. Alice Weiss, 62, began the petition drive that led to Brewster's resolution. She found that people she considered politically conservative quickly made it a common cause once they read the Patriot Act. It was after a session in the library studying the text of the bill with Weiss that the conservative Taxpayers Union secretary decided to back the anti-Patriot Act campaign.
"This is not a liberal town," Weiss said. "I was amazed at the support we got."

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