NEWS of '88: A RECAP OF EVENTS & HAPPENINGS.

This article summarizes important events related to school libraries in the U.S. in 1988. What began in January as a closed session between the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and members of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science quickly escalated into a battle between librarians and the FBI. Prominent newspapers were quick to investigate the more unsettling aspects of the FBI Library Awareness Program. The problem emerged in fall 1987, when the FBI asked librarian Paula Kaufman for circulation records of people reading scientific journals and to report any suspicious activities of foreigners. Kaufman refused to cooperate. Another FBI matter, one which made the Bureau even less popular with the public, surfaced during the year. It was reported in May that FBI investigators had been monitoring the mail and telephone of Todd Paterson. He discovered that the FBI has compiled a file on his activities. Paterson is suing in federal court asking that his file be expunged. No unusual surge in reports of censorship confrontations occurred in 1988, perhaps because would-be censors are changing tactics and are becoming more sophisticated in the political process. INSETS: Mergers & Acquisitions;People in the News.