Privacy Issues

I was reading an article in the April edition of the School Library Journal recently about student privacy rights in regards to school libraries. I found it to be an interesting subject from my perspective as a history teacher and enlightening due to my lack of experience actually working in a library. To be honest, I had never really thought much about privacy issues beyond knowing that my school librarian has been a strong advocate for confidentiality of circulation records for students.

The law is relatively clear on privacy issues related to student circulation history: no state gives school officials a right to access a student's circulation records. I found this somewhat surprising because the Bill of Rights is most often applied quite narrowly to students and has been even more so since the Rhenquist Court in the 1980's and 1990's. Some states (15 in all) do allow parents or guardians to have access to their child's circulation records. I was actually pleasantly surprised that that number was not higher as well.

The article alluded to the fact that the internet and other technology have upped the ante somewhat regarding privacy issues. Because most districts have acceptable use policies, often student internet use is watched and sometimes recorded. Bearing that in mind, privacy is at a minimum. This does not mean that librarians should be less vigilant about protecting student privacy rights in the library though.

The article discussed a librarian in California who has created a class to teach students about how to be proactive in protecting their privacy by teaching them online basics such as internet safety and how to protect their online reputation. I think that this is a great idea and was the subject of the wiki that I helped create for this class (great minds think alike, I guess). It is critical that students understand that their online lives can help or hurt them down the road. I really liked her use of the term "digital footprint" with her students to demonstrate the tracks that they leave behind.

Another issue coming to the forefront is the issue of e-readers. I have not used one of these yet so I am pretty uninformed as to how they work; but, it appears that one challenge librarians face is protecting the privacy of users and the materials that they read through the e-reader. It seems if you have multiple e-readers and multiple books, the element of privacy should be able to be preserved. If your library had limited quantities, then it might be easier for people to figure out who had what.

The author offered some relatively simple and clear steps to preserve privacy and follow the ALA's Code of Ethics regarding privacy and confidentiality:

• Talk to your principal about student privacy in the library and how to resolve various types of record requests in adherence to state and federal laws.

• Request that your board of education adopt a privacy policy stating who can access library patron records and the circumstances under which they may be released.

• Conduct a privacy audit to determine what student data you’ve collected, stored, shared, and used—and then determine what records should be purged.

• Develop a library records retention policy that includes a records-removal schedule and conscientiously maintain it.

• Be proactive and educate administrators, teachers, and all persons working in the library about the need to keep student library records confidential.

• Create and retain as few student library records as possible.

• Set library automation software to automatically delete students’ circulation history.

• Password protect circulation records and provide different levels of access for the adult library staff, students, and volunteers.

• Fold and staple overdue notices so that only the student’s name—and not the book’s title—is visible.

• Make sure that students’ reference questions, reserve and interlibrary loan requests, and the types of books they check out are kept confidential.

• Don’t label and arrange library books by reading levels (a common practice in some schools that use Accelerated Reader) so that students can observe their classmates’ reading levels.

• Teach students how to protect their privacy and to respect the privacy of others.

• Encourage parents to speak directly with their children about their reading choices and what they’ve checked out from the school library.

(http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/printissuecurrentissue/889643-427/the_privacy_problem_although_school.html.csp)


I think that it's important that librarians remain vigilant in protecting students' right to privacy. Teenagers in particular need to feel free to check out materials of use or interest without fear of being scrutinized by school officials, parents, or classmates. Adolescence can be such a rocky time for so many and I don't see anything that can be gained by allowing student privacy to be compromised.