The World : Soviet Library Spying Told

The Soviet Union has directed a massive espionage operation against U.S. libraries in an effort to gain sensitive technical knowledge and recruit agents, an FBI report said. It said a 26-year Soviet operation has targeted the Library of Congress, along with scientific and technical sections of public libraries, specialized departments of university libraries and large information clearinghouses. None of the information is classified, but the Soviets try to recruit some agents at libraries who are first asked to obtain public information, and later requested to turn over classified material, the FBI said. The American Library Assn. has criticized what it calls the FBI’s attempts to gain the cooperation of librarians in helping identify Soviet agents, maintaining such cooperation is is a violation of professional ethics.