Re: Libraries and Privacy: Get your Tomatoes Ready to Throw

Excellent point, Bernie, thank you!
--jody

-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of B.G. Sloan
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 11:52 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Libraries and Privacy: Get your Tomatoes Ready to
Throw


  "They should be able to choose to have no records kept, records shared
with friends, or records shared with the general public."

  One thing to keep in mind here is that many states have library
records confidentiality legislation that prohibits the release of
personal borrowing information. Librarians would be well advised to
consult with legal counsel before experimenting in this area.

Bernie Sloan
  >>> "Deridder, Jody L" 02/03/08 9:55 AM >>> She has another good point
with these lines:

"Patrons should have the final say over whether they want their
information shared or not. They should be able to choose to have no
records kept, records shared with friends, or records shared with the
general public."

We live in a supposedly free country. Doesn't that include the freedom
to make public what others would prefer kept private?

If it would be possible to offer more services to those who choose to
release their records to a less public, or public usage, then it may be
in our best interests to do so.

At minimum, we could offer more than we do now, such as recommender
systems, based on information that is never released.

--jody

-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Sadler
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 9:25 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Libraries and Privacy: Get your Tomatoes Ready to
Throw

On 2-Feb-08, at 1:08 PM, Melinda Gottesman wrote:

> If we don't care about people knowing what we buy, who we talk to, or
> what we eat - why should we care about people knowing what we read?

You don't care if someone is able to track and access without a warrant
records of what you buy, who you talk to and what you eat? I sure do!

To take just one example, records of who you talk to on the phone are
governed by privacy law, and the American people seem to be quite clear
on the fact that they should be. That's what this whole NSA domestic
wiretapping scandal is about, the fact that it is not okay to have the
government secretly monitoring communication traffic of its own citizens
without any law enforcement reason to do so. Do I really need to go into
why it's bad to have secret police monitoring everyone's conversations?

I know you're talking about social networking, not the police state, and
I do take your point that libraries can sometimes seem to go overboard
with information privacy, especially in the age of facebook where it
does seem like many patrons want to share their data.
However, given that the federal government seems to think library
records are important enough to pass laws about accessing them, and
given that libraries have built up an expectation of privacy concerning
library records, I very much want to err on the side of respecting
privacy, even if it means we can't roll out social networking software
as quickly or easily as we'd like to.

I believe there are work-arounds that will let us engage in the web 2.0
and deliver the kinds of services you mention without compromising
library ethics concerning privacy. For example, giving patrons tools to
CHOOSE to publish any given book they've read at the library to their
blog, or my space account, or what have you. That way you're giving them
an explicit choice for every book (so I don't turn it on generally and
then forget about it when I go to check out something I don't want all
my friends knowing about... or worse, choose not to check that book out
at all because I'm afraid of public scrutiny), and the records are
maintained by someone else so libraries aren't put in the position of
compromising our long-standing expectation of privacy regarding
circulation records.

So no tomatoes, but I do think there are more productive ways to frame
the conversation than simply saying privacy in libraries is outdated.

Cheers,
Bess

Elizabeth (Bess) Sadler
Research and Development Librarian
Digital Scholarship Services (DSS)
Box 400129
Alderman Library
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904



---------------------------------
Never miss a thing.   Make Yahoo your homepage.