want to touch her," said a longtime friend, Betty Medsger, former journalism department chairwoman at San Francisco State University.

Ms. Horn spoke out again in 2002, calling on librarians to resist attempts by the FBI, under the newly enacted USA Patriot Act, to secretly obtain library records of patrons allegedly connected to terrorism investigations.

Role of the library

"She believed in the role of the library in a democracy," Marrion said. "People couldn't make intelligent decisions about how to govern themselves and make choices regarding social and political and economic issues unless they had the information."

At the same time, she said, her mother was "the most civilized, polite person you could meet."

Ms. Horn is survived by Dean Galloway, her husband of 43 years; daughters Marrion of Toronto, and Patricia Horn Fellof the United Kingdom in English constituencies