>FYI
>
>Statement regarding DOJ request for removal of government publications by
>depository libraries
>
>The following statement has been issued by President-Elect Michael Gorman,
>representing President Carol Brey-Casiano, who is currently in Guatemala
>representing the Association:
>
>July 30, 2004
>
>Statement from ALA President-Elect Michael Gorman:
>
>Last week, the American Library Association learned that the Department of
>Justice asked the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents
>to instruct depository libraries to destroy five publications the
>Department has deemed not "appropriate for external use." The Department
>of Justice has called for these five these public documents,
>two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository
>libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with
>access to a law office or law library.
>
>The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how
>citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the
>government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and
>destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select
>Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset
>forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset
>Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).
>
>ALA has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the
>withdrawn materials in order to obtain an official response from the
>Department of Justice regarding this unusual action, and why the
>Department has requested that documents that have been available to the
>public for as long as four years be removed from depository library
>collections. ALA is committed to ensuring that public documents remain
>available to the public and will do its best to bring about a satisfactory
>resolution of this matter.
>
>Librarians should note that, according to policy 72, written authorization
>from the Superintendent of Documents is required to remove any documents.
>To this date no such written authorization in hard copy has been issued.
>
>Keith Michael Fiels
>Executive Director
>American Library Association
>(800) 545-2433 ext.1392
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