Until recently, most library literature on intellectual freedom and censorship focused on external efforts to restrict access to materials already owned or made accessible by libraries. With 9/11 and the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, the defense of patron privacy and the confidentiality of patron records, long a growing concern, has jumped to the fore. Self-censorship by citizens afraid to exercise their freedom to read out of fear that someone may uncover their reading habits and subject them to social or state sanctions has become a major issue. ("Read" is used throughout this essay for "read, view, listen to, or access.") In legal terms such fears exert a "chilling effect" on the exercise of First Amendment liberties.