by Rita Baladad
Quick Summary
The American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) recently released their "Library Privacy Guidelines for E-book Lending and Digital Content Vendor
The American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) recently released their "Library Privacy Guidelines for E-book Lending and Digital Content Vendors."
From the press release:
The document, which outlines best practices for vendors to follow to protect the privacy of library users, is intended to encourage vendors and libraries to work together to develop effective privacy protection policies and procedures for eBook lending and the delivery of digital content to library patrons. The document was developed by the IFC Privacy Subcommittee, with input from additional ALA committees, interest groups, and roundtables with an interest in privacy.
"A gap has grown between libraries' long-standing tradition of protecting privacy and common data management practices that have developed as libraries strive to deliver digital content, embrace the modern Web, and provide personalized services," said Michael Robinson, chair of the ALA-IFC Privacy Subcommittee, and Head of Systems at the Consortium Library, University of Alaska - Anchorage. "These guidelines attempt to balance the need to protect reader privacy with the needs of libraries to collect user data and provide personalized services, while respecting and protecting the individual's right to make their own informed decisions in regards to the privacy of their data."
