NASIG 2021

Despite its public and vocal commitment to patron privacy, librarianship largely lacks functional ways to assess privacy with respect to third-party resources such as vendor-provided e-resources. "Physical-equivalent privacy" can be one such yardstick: establish what data is collected, analyzed, stored, and shared/sold when patrons interact with an e-resource, then work out what would have to happen to collect equivalent data about use of an information-equivalent physical resource. If the data practices around the physical resource would be too unethical to countenance, then -- as a matter of service equity and inclusion -- so are the online data practices. The presentation will put this yardstick into practice with real-world examples, including the 2014 Adobe data leak and the under-construction Seamless Access proposal for e-resource authentication, so that attendees can use the yardstick themselves afterward.
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On any given day, the headlines offer up another story of egregious privacy practices by a commercial entity monetizing user data without consent or even justification. Librarians can’t help but be concerned about the tools and services that they rely upon and provide to users. Are we just one headline away from being the story of the day? Ethically, privacy should be a factor in every decision made around library services and the provision of resources. With staffing stretched to the breaking point, and only more so as a result of the pandemic what strategies and tools could best help libraries ensure good privacy practices. This panel will draw upon current scholarship, grant projects, and policy making in librarianship to highlight ways that librarians are engaging with these important issues. For example, Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe is leading the charge to develop a model privacy license language that libraries can utilize in their vendor negotiations and leading a project for academic librarians to champion privacy in campus learning analytics projects.. Doreen Bradley and Heather Staines have co-edited a special issue of Serials Librarian that explores privacy concerns that range from third party services, to data privacy, to tracking, and more. Gabriel Gardner of California State University Long Beach who contributed to the special issue will address concerns around third party tracking. In this session, participants will talk about the latest concerns and what you might do in your library to assure your faculty, staff, and students that their privacy is front of mind.