Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Protecting Patron Privacy: A LITA Guide

Product Description Although privacy is one of the core tenets of librarianship, technology changes have made it increasingly difficult for libraries to ensure the privacy of their patrons in the 21st century library. This authoritative LITA Guide offers readers guidance on a wide range of topics, including • Foundations of privacy in libraries • Data collection, retention, use, and protection • Laws and regulations • Privacy instruction for patrons and staff • Contracts with third parties • Use of in-house and internet tools including social network sites, surveillance video, and RFID Review An accessible entry point into an important but complicated topic, this book is recommended for librarians and IT staff at all types of libraries.--Booklist Do library users care about privacy anymore?And, if they do not, do librarians need to? Protecting Patron Privacy makes a strong case for why protecting our users' privacy, whether they notice or care, is an ethical imperative. Protecting Patron Privacy is an important and valuable book as libraries continue to make decisions about how to collect, use, and protect the private data of their users. This is an important conversation that the profession needs to have, and Bobbi Newman and Bonnie Tijerina have developed a useful set of points to consider.--Technicalities Protecting Patron Privacy is a slim but information-packed book which delves into the issues facing a modern library in protecting their patron's privacy. A range of experts on privacy issues contribute to seven sections each focused on a specific privacy issue. From the historical foundations of patron privacy in libraries, to what that means for libraries in a technology-saturated, modern-day world--think of everything from social networking to RFID library cards and physical materials--Protecting Patron Privacy covers the issue in understandable prose. Most chapters have a conclusion as well as a notes section and bibliography. Protecting Patron Privacy would be an excellent resource for any librarian or information technology person employed at a public or academic library.--American Reference Books Annual Protecting Patron Privacy: A LITA Guide is a small book that provides an abundance of timely and relevant information on data collection and patron privacy issues in libraries.... Public libraries and academic libraries would find Protecting Patron Privacy: A LITA Guide quite useful. These libraries are the ones that tend to collect, use, and save patron data the most. Special libraries, depending on their specialty area(s) and the Integrated Library System ILS they use, should at least consider purchasing this book.--Technical Services Quarterly Protecting Patron Privacy is well-versed in history and law, grounded in theory, immersed in the lively practitioner moment. With their eyes on the horizon, the authors in this volume tackle one of librarianship's most urgent emerging issues.--James LaRue, director, American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Freedom to Read Foundation Understanding that privacy is both an essential right in a free society and a fundamental value within our profession, Newman and Tijerina have wisely framed this LITA Guide to consider both how libraries can promote privacy to the public through education and programming and how our own practices can protect the privacy of our users. As libraries and communities change - ebooks and digital resources, mobile devices and wearables, algorithms, smart city initiatives, the internet of things - Protecting Patron Privacy offers invaluable advice and guidance to help all of us confront current and future challenges in ways that benefit our patrons and sustain our core values.--Miguel Figueroa, ALA's Center for the Future of Libraries Defending library users' rights to privately read, watch, and learn anything they want is harder to assure now than it ever has been. Newman, Tijerina, and this expert group of autho