Libraries and Privacy in the Post-Privacy Era - Part One: BCALS December Meeting 2017

Libraries hold patron privacy as one of their core values. However, as our dependence on third party vendors and publishers to provide library resources and services deepens, and as the control of our network infrastructure continues to move to the domain our institutions’ IT departments, libraries are no longer the sole handlers of library patron information. As a result, our ability to protect patron privacy is being challenged on several fronts: Restrictive licensing from vendors Shifts to authentication technologies that offer seamlessness and personalization but limit anonymous access Increased security and software licensing concerns from institutions’ IT departments limiting anonymous access to library networks Increased pressure/desire to incorporate patron data in institutional assessment and predictive analytics Given this situation, we need to ask ourselves: Are the decisions we are making to improve patron experience compromising their privacy? Do we have the leverage to demand publishers and vendors act against their own interests and not collect patron information/data? Do patrons even care about their privacy? Should/can patron privacy continue to be one of our core values? If so, how do we proceed in a post-privacy era? This presentation includes a keynote from Brian Lamb, Director of Learning Technology and Innovation at Thompson Rivers University. It also contains a panel discussion on privacy in libraries with Brian Lamb, Janis McKenzie, librarian at SFU's eBranch, and Scott Leslie, Systems Manager at the BC Libraries Cooperative.