In October 2001, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act to strengthen the ability of the U.S. government to combat terrorism. Unfortunately, some sections of the Act strike at core values and practices of libraries and archives, especially in the areas of record keeping, privacy, confidentiality, security, and access to the collections. This article addresses several crucial issues with focus especially on Section 215 of the Act, privacy and confidentiality concerns, record keeping practices, and the development of policies and procedures to prepare archivists for a request from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for researcher records. (Contains 36 notes.)