(FORTUNE Magazine) – According to a recent FBI report, Soviet agents are busily denuding U.S. library shelves of theses, books, and microfiche that describe recent breakthroughs in science and technology. The KGB and the Library Target outlines what the bureau believes to be a ''massive'' Soviet effort to insinuate its operatives into the libraries of Congress, universities, corporations, and even local communities, where they gather sensitive but unclassified technical information that has military applications. To counter this threat, the FBI operates a Library Awareness Program. Agents visit librarians to enlist their aid in reporting suspicious patrons, including those who make lots of photocopies or slip microfiche into their briefcases. Especially suspect are patrons requesting literature on underground tunneling, military installations, or technological breakthroughs. Some librarians have responded coolly. When agents approached Mead Data Central, whose Nexis database gives subscribers a library's worth of on-line information (plus, the FBI ominously notes, the full text of the Federal Register), management pointed out that none of this material was classified and bade the FBI good day. Andrew Garvin, president of FIND/SVP, an information clearinghouse in Manhattan, discovered that a Soviet trade association had been a client, but its requests were no different from those received from Japanese, French, or other foreign customers. Says Garvin: ''The Japanese have based their success on collecting publicly available information on their U.S. competitors.'' Why not the Russians? - A.F.