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And yet, I've never heard librarians question whether they should be retaining borrower records. If I don't trust the government not to abuse those records, why

And yet, I've never heard librarians question whether they should be retaining borrower records. If I don't trust the government not to abuse those records, why would I trust some other group of civil servants? Why do librarians still need to know I borrowed a book more than, say, a few days after I return it? If they need analytics, why can't they anonymise the borrower ID?

dalke 11y ago
> I've never heard librarians question whether they should be retaining borrower records. It is the ALA policy that such records should regularly be purged from the system. For example, quoting from http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=interpretations&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=34114 http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=interpretations&Temp... : > It is the responsibility of library staff to destroy information in confidential or privacy protected records in order to protect from unauthorized disclosure. Information that should be regularly purged or shredded includes personally identifiable information on library resource use, material circulation history, and security / surveillance tapes and logs. You can see some of the effects of this policy at http://ask.metafilter.com/228587/What-are-the-negative-results-of-purging-library-records http://ask.metafilter.com/228587/What-are-the-negative-resul... , regarding how some libraries purge their records more frequently, as part of the opposition to section 215 of the Patriot Act: > The library I worked at would delete the record of what a patron borrowed as soon as the return is processed. ... > Libraries have long purged patron records Or from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-07-03/news/0307030274_1_library-records-larger-libraries-largest-library-systems http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-07-03/news/030703027... : > Because of space limits, the Chicago Public Library, one of the largest library systems in the country, long has purged unnecessary circulation records each day and expunges Internet caches every 30 minutes, said spokeswoman Margot Holland. ... > For years, Skokie's library has purged records on borrowed materials once they're returned. Recently, it installed software to delete records of Internet use. ... > Sarah Meisels, Wheaton's library director, noted that Wheaton for years has purged circulation records as soon as they are no longer needed, making it practically impossible to comply with the Patriot Act. > In part because the Patriot Act is so rarely invoked, and also because libraries historically have gone to lengths to preserve patrons' privacy, allowing for the act is almost a moot point, Meisels said. You say you've "never heard librarians question whether they should be retaining borrower records." How much have you listened to libraries talk about their retention policies to know if they have been saying anything? Bear in mind also that in the US something like 48 of the states have special privacy laws for library records.

dalke 11y ago

> I've never heard librarians question whether they should be retaining borrower records. It is the ALA policy that such records should regularly be purged from the system. For example, quoting from http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=interpretations&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=34114 http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=interpretations&Temp... : > It is the responsibility of library staff to destroy information in confidential or privacy protected records in order to protect from unauthorized disclosure. Information that should be regularly purged or shredded includes personally identifiable information on library resource use, material circulation history, and security / surveillance tapes and logs. You can see some of the effects of this policy at http://ask.metafilter.com/228587/What-are-the-negative-results-of-purging-library-records http://ask.metafilter.com/228587/What-are-the-negative-resul... , regarding how some libraries purge their records more frequently, as part of the opposition to section 215 of the Patriot Act: > The library I worked at would delete the record of what a patron borrowed as soon as the return is processed. ... > Libraries have long purged patron records Or from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-07-03/news/0307030274_1_library-records-larger-libraries-largest-library-systems http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-07-03/news/030703027... : > Because of space limits, the Chicago Public Library, one of the largest library systems in the country, long has purged unnecessary circulation records each day and expunges Internet caches every 30 minutes, said spokeswoman Margot Holland. ... > For years, Skokie's library has purged records on borrowed materials once they're returned. Recently, it installed software to delete records of Internet use. ... > Sarah Meisels, Wheaton's library director, noted that Wheaton for years has purged circulation records as soon as they are no longer needed, making it practically impossible to comply with the Patriot Act. > In part because the Patriot Act is so rarely invoked, and also because libraries historically have gone to lengths to preserve patrons' privacy, allowing for the act is almost a moot point, Meisels said. You say you've "never heard librarians question whether they should be retaining borrower records." How much have you listened to libraries talk about their retention policies to know if they have been saying anything? Bear in mind also that in the US something like 48 of the states have special privacy laws for library records.