Choose Privacy Week Continues

Privacy is a particularly slippery and amorphous issue, about which people hold a wide variety of opinions and beliefs, particularly in the post-9-11 world in which we live.

Libraries and library workers think about privacy issues a lot - and want our customers to think critically about privacy issues, too.  Personal privacy issues touch everyone at virtually every stage of life, and even into death (e.g., access to the Social Security Death Index online), raising a universe of hard questions to be answered.   


Sponsored by the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), Choose Privacy Week is an annual initiative inviting library users of all ages and backgrounds into a national conversation about privacy rights in a digital age.  The theme for this year's Choose Privacy Week is "Freedom from Surveillance."

Libraries have been interested in maintaining the privacy of  individuals. Beaufort County Library Board of Trustees adopted the American Library Association Core of Ethics years and years ago.  It's part of our core values as library workers.  Why?  Because freedom of speech is meaningless without the freedom to read. 

Click here for handout explaining why librarians and libraries insist upon empowering our customers to explore, research, and make choices based upon their individual needs. 
 

Q:  Where are the lines drawn between "right of privacy" and "right to know" today ?


The major source used in the preparation of this entry was http://www.privacyrevolution.org/. Please explore the website - and think hard about where you stand on the issue of individual privacy rights.

"Choose Privacy Week" is May 1 - 7

Privacy is a particularly slippery and amorphous issue, about which people hold a wide variety of opinions and beliefs, particularly in the post-9-11 world in which we live.

Libraries and library workers think about privacy issues a lot - and want our customers to think critically about privacy issues, too.  Privacy issues touch upon a universe of topics, some of which may not be readily apparent. Here are just a few to consider:

• Access to adoptee birth records 
• RFID chips to track movement of individuals,
• Parent access to college grades (I have a hard time accepting this one as a parent of college students - particularly as the universities they attended expected me to pay my children's tuition and housing bills!), 
• Email searches
• Dissemination of personal health information
• Cities using security cameras on the street. 

In other words, issues relating to personal privacy touch everyone at virtually every stage of life, and even into death (e.g., access to the Social Security Death Index online), raising a universe of hard questions: 

Q: Who can, does, or should have access to information about you as a person, an employee, a parent, a child?
Q: Who can share the data that has been collected for or about you?
Q: How can the data be shared?
Q: When can the data be shared? 

Sponsored by the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), Choose Privacy Week is an annual initiative inviting library users of all ages and backgrounds into a national conversation about privacy rights in a digital age.  The theme for this year's Choose Privacy Week is "Freedom from Surveillance."

Q: Have you ever "Googled" yourself ?
A: I have.  It turns out that there is other Grace Cordials - as hard as that may be for me to accept. 

Some of the information I found online is about me and is accurate.  Some of the information I found online is about me, but the information is inaccurate today.  Some of the information I found online is not about me - but other people might mistakenly think that it is about me. Some of the information I found online is about me, is accurate, but nevertheless makes me a little uneasy about the information being there.  Not because I've done anything bad, illegal or unethical (that I can recall, anyway) but just because I consider myself a fairly private person and I've been known to say "Nun yah" (i.e., that piece of information is "None of your business!")

Now you give it a try.  Look for yourself online in a search engine of your choice. 

Q:  Where you surprised by what you found? 
Q:  Was there any information online about yourself that you consider private?

Libraries have been interested in maintaining the privacy of  individuals. Beaufort County Library Board of Trustees adopted the American Library Association Core of Ethics years and years ago.  It's part of our core values as library workers.  Why?  Because freedom of speech is meaningless without the freedom to read.  Click here for handout explaining why librarians and libraries insist upon empowering our customers to explore, research, and make choices based upon their individual needs. 

Q:  Where are the lines drawn between "right of privacy" and "right to know" today ?



Individuals should think critically and make more informed choices about their privacy. Library users, indeed all citizens and residents of this country, should understand how government agencies and corporations are monitoring and tracking their activities, as well as how that information is collected, stored and used.

The major source used in the preparation of this entry was http://www.privacyrevolution.org/. Please explore the website - and think hard about where you stand on the issue of individual privacy rights.

Librarians: The Original Search Engine

Special collections and archives assist researchers on a daily basis, in a variety of ways, via a variety of means.  We can share who has benefited from our resources once the research is presented in a public forum or published.  Otherwise, we must stay mum regarding who is investigating what topic.

For example, we had two out-of-state University researchers working on dissertations during January.  Until they publish or share the products of their research via some publicly accessible format or event,  I cannot divulge who they were or what their topics were. Protecting library customer privacy is extremely important to librarians!

However, I am proud to say that the notice for the 2012 Annual Meeting of the South Carolina Historical Association which came out on February 1st includes a session by a BDC customer on Robert Shaw Wilkinson, the second President of South Carolina State College.  The BDC researcher, Jean Weingarth, visited our facility two summers ago, used some of our resources, and picked my brain, as she tracked down primary sources to document the story of his very considerable contribution to the field of education.  There isn't usually a quick turn-around in the field of academic research.  

“Will the real Robert Shaw Wilkinson (1865- 1932) please stand up?” The Role of Primary sources in debunking the myth surrounding one of South Carolina’s Leading Black educators by  Jean L. Weingarth, USC-Columbia Ph.D.  Sat., March 3rd - 1:45 pm

As the button states, librarians are the original search engines.  We are in the information gathering, analysis and sharing business - which means that there is far more media to consult than just books and materials listed within our library system catalog.  We can do a better job for our customers when we get a little advance notice. When it comes to projects, the more prepared we can be before your arrival, the quicker you can get to work upon your arrival.  

Just like Ms. Weingarth, you, too, can pick my brain about what the Beaufort District Collection might have to help you pursue your own research interests relating to our local history, culture, and natural environment, 10,000 B.C.E. to 1962.  I schedule research consultation appointments during our regular hours of operation.  I can tell you about our holdings and discuss possible research strategies one-on-one with you.  Call me at 843-255-6446 or e-mail me at gracec@bcgov.net to start the consultation process. 

Free Your Mind: Read a Banned Book!

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. BBW 2011 runs from September 24th through October 1st.

Intellectual freedom — the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular — provides the foundation for BBW. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during BBW have been targets of attempted bannings. Some of the classic works of literature on the challenged list may surprise you.

For titles challenged in 2009-2010, click here.

In a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections. However, sometimes the bans stand.

Imagine how many more books might be challenged — and possibly banned or restricted — if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use BBW each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. In 2011, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, and PEN American Center also signed on as sponsors.

Q: What can you do to show your support for intellectual freedom?

Here are a few suggestions:
1) Check out and read a title that has been banned or challenged from our holdings in the SC LENDS catalog.
2) Visit and "Like" the Banned Books Week Facebook page.
3) Contribute your own 2 minute video reading from your favorite challenged book to YouTube.

This entry was informed by the ALA webpage found at http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm and links therefrom.