The USA Patriot Act: How does it affect libraries?

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Ben Franklin <Tab/> <Tab/>The USA PATRIOT Act (the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) is described simply as a bill "to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world to enhance law enforcement investigatory …

…act expiring in 2005. There are many legislative addendums to the act. The ???? aka the USA Patriot Act II is not even submitted to Congress, but already has caused a big stir. An undisclosed source leaked the Act to the ??????, which immediately posted it on their website. This Act gives the government even more power then the USA Patriot Act. Under this provision, the FBI would not need to get a court order to obtain information.