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Interesting Article Describes What Libraries Can Learn From Facebook

Submitted by sayshelen on Sat, 03/06/2010 - 8:05pm

I found an interesting article that's a little off-topic: it doesn't describe how libraries can use Facebook to further their goals; rather, it describes what libraries should be learning from the immense popularity of Facebook in general. Called 'What Libraries Can Learn From Facebook,' it talks about the freedoms Facebook provides to users in defining their own privacy settings. The onus is on the user to decide what he is willing to share or obscure.

The blogger compares this to the modern library, where privacy is, in his view, too highly coveted. He even worries that this over-emphasis on privacy will 1) cause patrons to feel out of control of their own experience and 2) cause the libraries to secure their own obsolescence, since modern users expect a personalized information experience in exchange for giving up some personal details.

Don't miss the comments, where the author and a few visitors comment on whether libraries are destined or not to become part of the online social space.

Helen, This is an interesting

ryanwade's picture
Submitted by ryanwade on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 8:46pm.

Helen,

This is an interesting article and I'm glad that you posted it, but for me, I'm glad because it reminds me of how important privacy is.

Amazon, Facebook, and the like are still new technologies and the information that we share through these outlets is still being tested and the jury is still out on what is appropriate and what is not.

The library is an old technology and it has been tested, and tested again. As we all know the government has unheard of privileges to spy on US citizens, even without cause. But they cannot do this at the library because by and large libraries—and I speak only of public libraries here—have taken measures to protect the privacy, and another word for privacy here is civil rights, of their patrons.

Interestingly enough, my aunt was the first librarian to stand up to the FBI when they came to her library flaunting the patriot act and demanding patron records. They left empty handed.

Maybe the amount of privacy we give up to use sites like Amazon and Facebook really doesn't matter (and those privacy setting are pretty well hidden) because there is very little assumed privacy. At the library there is, I would argue, a huge amount of privacy assumed, and its the utmost importance for the library to be agents of that privacy. I don't want anyone persecuted for the books they read, and I'm not thinking here about worst case scenarios, I'm thinking much more common place then that: I'm thinking of the preteen who goes to the library reads books exploring their sexuality because their home and community are too conservative to be a resource, and if the topics they were looking at were known then there would be severe consequences to be had.

For more on this, check out the article The Politics of Access: Libraries and the Fight for Civil Liberties in Post-9/11 America, by Maurice Wheeler.

PermaLink: http://search.ebscohost.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=18139466&site=ehost-live

I do understand your concern though, that many times a site like Amazon can offer more than what the library can, but I think that this can be achieved without giving up privacy. Check out how great the recommended books function works on the Seattle Public Libraries site is.

I don't mean to come off as being to harsh, I just really value this area of the public library.

Ryan

 

I think people do not realize

beckyrech's picture
Submitted by beckyrech on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 10:40pm.

I think people do not realize the privacy they do have when visiting the library.  I live in a medium sized community and see many of my friends and acquaintances at the library.  Multiple times they have brought up what they have checked out or placed on hold in conversation outside the library in an effort to defend themselves or explain why they were interested in a particular item.  When I explain to them I can't talk about with others, they seem surprised, so I compare it to a doctor-patient relationship which seems to make more sense to them.

Ryan, I absolutely agree with

Submitted by sayshelen on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 10:34pm.

Ryan, I absolutely agree with you that libraries' efforts to protect user privacy, especially in the face of things like the Patriot Act, is admirable. In fact, I've traditionally been a vehement supporter of those efforts.

That's one reason why I found this article so interesting -- the concept that perhaps libraries' (almost parental) dedication to user privacy is actually a bad thing.

I'm not sure I totally agree with the article, but it did make me think about whether users should be allowed to designate their own privacy settings.

I think the author has a

beckyrech's picture
Submitted by beckyrech on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 9:56pm.

I think the author has a point.  At our library we do not keep records of what a persona has checked out after they have returned it.  The prior patron information is available when the item is accessed, but if patron wants a lits to items he/she has previously checked out that is not available for them and one of the major reasons we give for this when asked is that it is for their own privacy.  I am willing to bet nine out of ten patrons would give up the right to privacy if they could easily access a list of books they had already read.  I bet we are asked once a day whether or not we can let them know what they have checked out in the past.  While we have other reasons for not giving this as an option like it would take up too much space on our servers, it would be interesting if it was an option for patrons.

Do any of the libraries you work for keep track of what patrons have previously borrowed?  If not, what are the reasons you give for not doing so?  If so, do patrons use that service?

I think that the key here is

ryanwade's picture
Submitted by ryanwade on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 9:35pm.

I think that the key here is to have library staff believe in the importance of privacy.  I recently asked the privacy question at the Seattle Public Library, and the staff at the circulation desk enthusiastically answered my question and made a fuss about making sure that I had a privacy/confidentiality statement tri-fold produced by the library system.

Patrons will be persuaded given the staff's personal beliefs about privacy/confidentiality.  If it's presented as "no big deal," then patrons will trust in the stance of the staff member, which they see as being the stance of the entire library--a public institution that they hold in high regard.  The library is the professional, and that patron will trust in that professional (irregardless of whether the person whom the patron interacting with an occasional volunteer or the library director--it doesn't matter).

OPAC systems and "My Account" systems are not blind to this matter, and librarians, staff, and software developers recognize that the public wants to know what books they've checked out.  Here is Seattle's answer, it's called My List.  Of course patrons might find it cumbersome, but any complaints can be re-situated as a teachable moment. And using this type of service is less cumbersome than figuring out that, 1., your privacy settings need to be changed on Facebook, and 2., changing said privacy settings.

I think that if librarians act paternally about privacy it is because they are acting with full knowledge of the consequences of what a breach in privacy can entail.  Many patrons don't realize the importance, and while that is not ideal, its OK, so long as the library sticks up for them.  We excuse parents for knowing better, because they do.

As I was thinking more and more about this issue last night, I couldn't help appreciate the role that the public library played in my life growing up as a latch-key kid.  While I never depended on the explicit privacy of the library, the library stood-day in and day out-as a safe place for me after school, and I'm thankful for this 1000 times over. Thinking more about the assumed privacy factor in the library and sites like Amazon and Facebook, I'm even more sure that the issue of assumed privacy is paramount in the discussion. Think back to the young library patron growing up in homophobic house and needs information to explore their own developing homosexuality. That patron can go to the library and ask for information or find it on there own, and they can do this with a huge amount of assumed privacy. That same person would never in post a comment on Facebook asking the same question they're asking their library's reference librarian or OPAC.

I truly believe that the library needs to act as stewards of this privacy for the library to function in its mission, and that private and free access to information is one of the main vertebrae in the backbone of a free and empowered democratic populous—and any fissure in this vertebra will undoubtedly cause paralysis in the full body.

 

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