Privacy
Course
Evaluating Student Privacy in your Library [8:36]
We discuss how to evaluate how well you're protecting students' privacy in your school library.
There is a potential to expose students to teasing by peer who read at different and possible higher levels. This type of situation does occur and here's a true story: Sophie told her grandmother that she is much smarter than her best friend because she leads with labels indicating many grade levels above that of her friend. Sophie should not feel superior to her friend because of numbers on a book's spine. She should not be privy to this type of information. Only a student, the child's parents and the teachers should know the student's reading level. Is there a tool that can help you determine the status of a student's privacy in your library? Luckily, the answer is yes. The School Library Program Privacy Checklist. A copy is included in the support materials for this workshop. With the School Library Program Privacy Checklist you can evaluate whether you have already met a privacy enabling action, if not jot down notes about next steps.
Let's go through the checklist together and I'll highlight some of the important privacy elements. First, rate your own knowledge about state and federal privacy laws. Next, check whether you are familiar with ALA's policy statements on privacy such as The Code of Ethics, privacy and interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights and AASL's position statement on the confidentiality of library records. Your knowledge is critical because you must provide leadership in the area of privacy for your faculty and students. It is also vital that you continue to learn about privacy through professional reading and privacy related news stories. Next, do you have a formal or even an informal written privacy policy? If not, there is a lesson in this workshop devoted to creating a privacy policy. Third, have you established library procedures that protect the privacy of students? This includes secured delivery of student overdue notices. Automated circulation systems are a great benefit for library management but they also pose a risk by holding students' checkout history. Have you protected the records with passwords? Is your system configured to delete students' circulation history? Records retention is another topic for evaluation. Are you retaining the fewest students' school library records possible?
Library staff training including adult and student volunteers is imperative to protect the confidentiality of students' library use. A middle school librarian whom I know trains his student volunteers emphasizing two points: student assistants should not use circulation programs to look up other students' information and they should not give out any information about other students' use of library resources to anyone. Administrators and teachers also need to be educated about student privacy. Have you begun this process? Let's not forget about the students themselves. They need to be taught to safeguard their privacy and to respect the privacy of others in the physical world and online.
Next the checklist asks about library best practices such as protecting interlibrary loan records and placing reserves, modeling keeping conversations with students confidential and ensuring that privacy is a topic included in the school's acceptable use policy.
Do you participate in national privacy events? Such as Choose Privacy Week in May? Or Data Privacy Day in February? Looking outward, have you reached out to parents? They would certainly be interested in the privacy of their children online. Have there been instanced where you have violated the students' privacy out of personal concern for their wellbeing? What about technology concerns?
Have you advised administrators about the placement of surveillance cameras in the library, if this is applicable? Have you discussed your privacy concerns with vendors? When libraries purchase resources from third party vendors, school librarians must be aware that vendors have the capability to track patrons' use. For example, e-book vendors can collect information about the reading interests and habits of students. The purpose of vendors' tracking and their privacy policies may be at odds with protecting your students' privacy. Finally, do you have any other privacy concerns that are specific to your library that can be added to the list?
Wow, the checklist evaluates a lot. Can you accomplish everything? Don't worry, as the saying goes, a long journey begins with a single step. After rating the status of students' privacy in your school library determine short and long term goals. Consider the actions that improve student privacy most, break down the goals into small steps. What is the best order in which to complete the tasks? What are the small items that can be done immediately? Which tasks will require laying groundwork over a period of time? Create a timeline. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to do everything at once, enlist the help of your principal, colleagues and other staff in taking the first steps. You will be much more successful if others are also invested in the final goal of protecting students' privacy. Use the checklist to reevaluate your progress annually. Add new privacy concerns to the checklist and monitor them.
Reflect on the connection between students' First Amendment right to access information in the school library and the need for privacy. Recognize that students, especially middle and high school students will only feel comfortable to research sensitive topics if they feel confident that their use of library resources will be kept confidential by library staff. Work hard to earn students' trust. If you experience resistance among your colleagues, accept that not everyone believes that minors should have the right to privacy and privacy for minors is not an easy principle to defend. However when privacy laws shield of fail to protect student library records, school librarians know what is at stake. For us, privacy is a core value, it is part of who we are as library professionals therefore we bear the greatest responsibility to protect the privacy of our students.
As Adams states, "School librarians are the guardians of student privacy." However, standing up for student privacy in your library takes courage. The lesson covers the School Library Program Privacy Checklist. The checklist reviews library procedures regarding student volunteers, outreach to parents, talking with teachers and administrators, and technology concerns, among other topics. The lesson ends with practical steps to take in improving your library's privacy practices.
Evaluate your library program using the School Library Program Privacy Checklist found in the Resources below.
MLA Citation
Collins, Karla. "Privacy: The Privacy Checklist." School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1979855?learningModuleId=1979860&topicCenterId=2247902.
Entry ID: 2136334
Additional Resources
About the Author
Helen R. Adams, MLS, is an online senior lecturer for Antioch University-Seattle in the areas of intellectual freedom, privacy, ethics, and copyright. A Wisconsin resident, she formerly worked as a school librarian and served as president of AASL. She is chair of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee and a member of the AASL Knowledge Quest Advisory Board. She authored Protecting Intellectual Freedom and Privacy in Your School Library (Libraries Unlimited 2013) and co-contributed a chapter on intellectual freedom to the second edition of The Many Faces of School Library Leadership (Libraries Unlimited 2017).
MLA Citation
Adams, Helen R. "Privacy. Evaluating Student Privacy in your Library [8:36]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, September 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1979855?learningModuleId=1979860&topicCenterId=2247902.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1979855?learningModuleId=1979860&topicCenterId=2247902
Entry ID: 1979855