New survey confirms librarians’ commitment to protecting privacy rights

For Immediate Release
Tue, 05/01/2012 – 15:55

Contact: Jennifer Petersen
Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)

CHICAGO – In conjunction with Choose Privacy Week, the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) released preliminary findings from a new survey measuring librarians’ views on privacy rights and protecting library users’ privacy.

The survey, which builds on an earlier 2008 survey assessing librarians’ attitudes about privacy, provides important data that will help ALA evaluate the state of privacy in the United States and libraries’ role in protecting library users’ privacy. The data will help guide ongoing planning for Choose Privacy Week and similar initiatives aimed at engaging librarians in public education and advocacy to advance privacy rights.

Some of the highlights from the 2012 survey include:

• Librarians remain concerned about privacy and individuals’ desire to control access and use of personal information. Ninety-five percent agree or strongly agree that individuals should be able to control who sees their personal information, and more than 95 percent of respondents feel government agencies and businesses shouldn’t share personal information with third parties without authorization and should only be used for a specific purpose.
• Librarians affirmed their commitment to the profession’s long-standing ethic of protecting library users’ privacy. Nearly 100 percent of respondents agreed that “Libraries should never share personal information, circulation records or Internet use records with third parties unless it has been authorized by the individual or by a court of law,” and 76 percent feel libraries are doing all they can to prevent unauthorized access to individual’s personal information and circulation records.  Overall, nearly 80 percent feel libraries should play a role in educating the general public about privacy issues.
• When compared to the 2008 survey, the results showed that the responses given by the 2012 respondents generally mirrored those of the 2008 respondents, with data showing a slight decline in the level of concern over privacy. For example, in both surveys, the vast majority (95 percent in 2008, 90 percent in 2012) of respondents expressed concern that “companies are collecting too much personal information about me and other individuals.”  However those who “strongly” agreed dropped from 70 percent in 2008 to only 54 percent in 2012.

The 2012 survey also revealed some limitations in libraries’ handling of privacy issues.  While nearly 80 percent of the responding librarians said libraries should play a role in educating the general public about privacy, only 13 percent said their library had hosted a privacy information session, lecture, seminar or other event addressing privacy and surveillance. Similarly, while 100 percent agree that libraries should not release library records without a court order, only 51 percent indicate that their libraries offer training on handling requests for user records and only 57 percent indicate that their libraries effectively communicate the library’s privacy policies to their patrons.

The 2012 study is funded by a generous grant from the Open Society Foundations and is managed by Dr. Michael Zimmer, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Information Studies, and co-director of its Center for Information Policy Research.

The survey is part of ALA’s Choose Privacy Week and “Privacy for All” initiative, which conducted with the generous support of the Open Society Foundations.  Its website, www.privacyrevolution.org, provides access to privacy-related news, information and programming resources.

The American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom established Choose Privacy Week in 2010 to help libraries work with their communities in navigating these complicated but vital issues.  It is a national public awareness campaign that aims to educate the public about their privacy rights and to deepen public awareness about the serious issue of government surveillance. The theme for Choose Privacy Week 2012 is “Freedom from Surveillance.”

For more information on Choose Privacy Week, visit www.privacyrevolution.org or contact Jennifer Petersen, ALA PR coordinator at (312) 280-5043, jpetersen@ala.org.

Zimmer, M. (2012). The ethical (re)design of the Google Books project. In iConference ’12 Proceedings of the 2012 iConference, 363-369. DOI: 10.1145/2132176.2132223

Today, the Google Books project is at a relative standstill — lawsuits against the project remain outstanding as the courts rejected a proposed settlement agreement. The failure of the original vision for the Google Books project to become fully realized presents us with a unique opportunity to ensure that whatever final form Google Books will take in the future, it is designed to support the values respected within the domain of information ethics. This paper will proposed an ethical re-design of the Google Books project, focusing on three core ethical values of primary interest to librarian and information professionals: privacy, intellectual freedom, and public access to information. Advocating for these values in the next iteration of the mass digitization service can help ensure that the informational norms of the library are embraced and upheld.

ALA conducting new survey about librarians and privacy

For Immediate Release
Tue, 12/13/2011 – 15:50

Contact: Barbara Jones
Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)

CHICAGO – The American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is inviting librarians and library workers across the country to participate in a survey that will measure librarians’ attitudes about privacy rights and protecting library users’ privacy.

The survey is available online, and takes only 15 minutes to complete. All responses are anonymous and confidential:

http://tinyurl.com/ALAprivacysurvey

The survey, which builds on an earlier 2008 survey assessing librarians’ attitudes about privacy both within and outside of the library, will provide important data that will help ALA assess the state of privacy in the United States and help guide OIF’s planning for “Privacy for All,” ALA’s ongoing campaign to engage librarians in public education and advocacy to advance privacy rights.  The survey will be available until March 1, 2012.

The study is funded by a generous grant from the Open Society Institute and is managed by Dr. Michael Zimmer, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Information Studies and co-director of its Center for Information Policy Research.

Barbara Jones, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, encouraged all librarians and library workers to take the survey.  “After three successful years working on Choose Privacy Week and related educational programs, it is essential that we test our assumptions for the remaining years of the grant,” she said.  “We want ‘Privacy for All’ to create models for programming and services that librarians can use for various constituencies and community groups.  We can’t do that without your opinions.”

The “Privacy for All” initiative features Choose Privacy Week, an annual event that encourages libraries and librarians to engage library users in a conversation about privacy; and a website, privacyrevolution.org, that provides access to privacy-related news, information and programming resources.  In 2011 – 2012, “Privacy for All” and Choose Privacy Week will be focused on the topic of government surveillance, with an emphasis on immigrant and refugee communities’ use of libraries and youth attitudes about privacy.

Visit www.privacyrevolution.org to learn more about Choose Privacy Week and the resources available to help libraries engage their users in a conversation on privacy.

Opening Standards: The Global Politics of Interoperability
Edited by Laura DeNardis
September 2011

Openness is not a given on the Internet. Technical standards–the underlying architecture that enables interoperability among hardware and software from different manufacturers–increasingly control individual freedom and the pace of innovation in technology markets. Heated battles rage over the very definition of “openness” and what constitutes an open standard in information and communication technologies. In Opening Standards, experts from industry, academia, and public policy explore just what is at stake in these controversies, considering both economic and political implications of open standards. The book examines the effect of open standards on innovation, on the relationship between interoperability and public policy (and if government has a responsibility to promote open standards), and on intellectual property rights in standardization–an issue at the heart of current global controversies. Finally, Opening Standards recommends a framework for defining openness in twenty-first-century information infrastructures.

Contributors discuss such topics as how to reflect the public interest in the private standards-setting process; why open standards have a beneficial effect on competition and Internet freedom; the effects of intellectual property rights on standards openness; and how to define standard, open standard, and software interoperability.

About the Editor

Laura DeNardis is Associate Professor in the School of Communication at American University. She is the author of Protocol Politics: The Globalization of Internet Governance (MIT Press, 2009) and a Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project at Yale Law School.

You can purchase the book at Amazon, etc. Enjoy!

As CIPR Co-Director, I’m very pleased to make this announcement:

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies (SOIS) and the Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR) is proud to welcome Dr. Nadine Kozak as the 2011-12 Postdoctoral Fellow in Information Policy. Dr. Kozak is an interdisciplinary scholar; she has a BA (Honors) in History from the University of Calgary, a MA in Communication from Carleton University, and a PhD in Communication and Science Studies from the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Kozak’s research explores government projects and public-private partnerships created with the intent to expand broadband services to unserved and underserved communities, and analyzes how these projects are adopted in rural areas by a variety of organizations and residents. Her dissertation research analyzed the development of broadband services in two regions, rural Wyoming and rural Alberta, Canada, using interview data, ethnographic data, government documents, and newspaper reports.

During her time at SOIS, Dr. Kozak will research projects carried out with federal Broadband Technology Opportunities Program funding. Her work will explore whether these projects achieve their goals of creating sustainable broadband adoption and compare these with older adoption programs in the U.S. and Canada. She plans to complete journal articles about advanced telecommunications and the results of deregulation. In addition to research and writing, while at SOIS, she would like to teach a class on the history of U.S. information policy, starting with the Post Office and culminating with the current state of telecommunications regulation.

While Nadine will greatly miss the Pacific Ocean and San Diego’s amazing beaches, she is excited to live in Milwaukee. During a brief visit to the city in June, she quickly began to appreciate Milwaukee’s age and heritage. Outside of work, Nadine would like to learn about, and enjoy, the region through food, museums, and festivals.

I’m also very happy to announce that Wilhelm Peekhaus, our 2010-2011 IP Postdoc Fellow, will be joining the SOIS faculty this fall.

The School of Information Studies (SOIS) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in Information Studies at the rank of Assistant, Associate or Full Professor. The selected applicant will teach courses in the School’s graduate and, possibly, undergraduate programs. A PhD and MLIS (or comparable degree) are required as is demonstrated ability in research and teaching.

Applicants should have a strong background in information policy, including, but not limited to, ethical, cultural, technological or political issues as they relate to the information professions, systems, and infrastructures that make up our global information society.

Experience or demonstrated ability in design and delivery of courses in a variety of formats, including distance learning modes, is highly desirable. The Applicant should demonstrate the ability to teach in at least one of the core areas in the SOIS MLIS program and advanced graduate elective courses in her/his areas of expertise. Opportunities will also be available to teach in the School’s Bachelor of Science program in Information Science and Technology. The Applicant should be willing to work closely with doctoral students and to serve on dissertation committees. Experienced researcher a plus. Applicants who are eligible for a senior level appointment are especially encouraged to apply.

The preferred expected start date is January, 2012, and no later than August 2012.

For full details and to apply, visit the official posting here (position #2730).

My contribution to the discussion focuses on identifying some of the unique ethical dilemmas that youth face in their information-based environments, and how some of our current literacy standards help address some of those issues. More importantly, I suggest four new strategies to help achieve ethical literacy in youth:

• Talking and listening to youth
  • Discover their unique perspectives on privacy, property, information sharing & exchange
  • Need to shape ethical lessons & examples accordingly
• Ensure ethics are integrated into all literacy-related educational activities
  • Specifically address ethical questions related to each learning outcome
  • Add ethical components to computer literacy courses, information literacy sessions, special projects
• Reach youth through information technology
  • Engage the technology, don’t build fear of it
  • Create ways to teach ethics through the active use of Facebook, Wikipedia
• Turn all information interactions into “ethical teaching moments”
  • Game nights could include discussion of cheating
  • YouTube video contests could address copyright
  • Searching Google can present lessons on bias, free speech, censorship

The slides framing my contribution can be accessed below. I’m really looking forward to this conversation.

I presented a paper co-written with three of my esteemed colleagues, Johannes Britz, Peter Lor, and Shana Ponelis, titled “From Codification to Actualization: Applying Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach to an Information-Based Rights Framework.” In this work-in-progress, we use Sen’s capability approach to reveal how personal, social, and environmental factors shape individuals’ capabilities to capitalize on their access to information and knowledge, and conclude by suggesting that information rights advocates must turn their focus from simply promoting access to fostering capabilities, which in turn will truly empower individuals to exercise and actualize their basic information rights.

All the papers and comments at this event were stimulating, but one talk in particular grabbed my attention. David Cullier, an associate professor in the School of Journalism at UofA, presented “Freedom of Information Gazebos: The Ethical Imperative for News-Library Town Squares in the Digital Age to Preserve the Communal Right to Know”, where he called on public libraries to take on a slightly new role in their communities.

Concerned that the shrinking of local news rooms and resulting lack of reporting of local news and government activities, Cullier called on libraries to be more proactive in the gathering and sharing of public records and other government information — to become freedom of information gazebos. He points out that:

Most communities have libraries, serving as a focal point for information important to citizens, often providing physical space for discussion, forums, and community meetings. Libraries are staffed by professionals expert in finding and disseminating information for citizens. Libraries also are embedded with a culture of information freedom.

To serve as true freedom of information gazebos, Cullier suggests, libraries would need to make several important changes in their culture and organizational composition. Libraries would need to be more aggressive in seeking information, actively filing freedom of information requests, and litigating for access to public records when necessary.

Local librarians should also engage in reporting and synthesizing government activities, such as attending a city council meeting, summarizing it online and posting the minutes and supporting documents. Cullier even suggested that MLIS programs should include journalism training, and libraries could even hire the reporters being laid off by newsrooms to perform this important function.

Most importantly, libraries would have to be granted greater independence from local governments, and protections would be necessary to protect libraries from retaliation, both in budgetary cuts or outright firings.

These are not modest proposals, but I really like the direction of Cullier’s thinking. Groups of activist-minded librarians, like Radical Reference, have embarked on similar efforts, but a call for more structural change in the nature of the library profession and institution might be just what is needed to help libraries maintain their central role in providing access to information.

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Information Policy
School of Information Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is accepting applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Information Policy for the 2011-2012 academic year.

The information policy fellowship is designed for recent PhDs who are interested in social, ethical, economic, legal, and technical aspects of information and information technologies with a focus on information policy and information ethics. All applicable research areas are encouraged to apply, but preference will be given to applicants whose work investigates the intersections of information policy, intellectual property, intellectual freedom, governance, power, and identity.

Along with continuing their own research agenda, the fellow will work closely with the Center for Information Policy Research and affiliated faculty, assist in coordination of related events, work with current PhD students, and participate in the academic and intellectual community of the School. The fellow will be expected to teach one advanced graduate course related to her/his research topic in the spring 2012 semester. The stipend for the fellowship will be $38,000 for a 12-month appointment beginning in August 22, 2011, with a $2,000 research and travel stipend. Fellows are eligible for benefits. The stipend for this position may be subject to UW System furlough and budgetary policies.

Application Information:

• Applicants must be scholars who are not yet tenured and who are no more than 3 years past receiving their PhD.
• Applicants must hold a PhD in information studies or related discipline. Applicants who do not yet hold a PhD but expect to have it by August 2011 will be asked to provide a letter from their home institution corroborating the degree award schedule. Verification of completion of degree will be required before the start date.
• Application packages must include: letter explaining research agenda, teaching interests, and appropriateness for the fellowship; a curriculum vitae; a writing sample; and 3 references.
• Send all application materials electronically to both Dr. Joyce Latham (latham@uwm.edu) and Dr. Michael Zimmer (zimmerm@uwm.edu).
• Deadline for application is April 30, 2011. Decisions to be made by May 31 2011.

For more information, please contact either Dr. Latham or Dr. Zimmer, and visit us at http://www4.uwm.edu/sois/ and http://www4.uwm.edu/cipr/.

(We are picking up the reins from our friend Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan, who is now the Endowed Chair and Director at the Center for Applied Ethics, University of Wisconsin-Stout.)

One of our first acts as directors was to update CIPR’s website and tweak (only slightly) its mission:

The Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR) is the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s multidisciplinary research center for the study of the intersections between the policy, ethical, political, social and legal aspects of the global information society. CIPR‘s research and scholarship focuses on such key information policy issues as intellectual property, privacy, intellectual freedom, access to information, censorship, cyberlaw, and the complex array of government, corporate, and global information practices and policies.

With information infrastructures and technologies and the globalization of information evolving at a faster pace than our social, legal, and educational systems, it is imperative that information policy issues be examined systematically in an interdisciplinary environment. Established in 1998 within the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee School of Information Studies (SOIS), CIPR facilitates information policy research through its research agenda, lecture series, consulting and outreach activities, and its various fellows programs.

CIPR welcomes formal and informal collaborations with other scholars, institutions and agencies interested in information ethics, law, or policy. CIPR personnel are available for consultations, advisement, presentations, and related educational and outreach opportunities.

Already this year, CIPR has partnered with UW-M’s Center for 21st Century Studies for the successful “Minding the Gaps: WikiLeaks and Internet Security in the 21st Century” symposium, which featured Laura DeNardis (Yale Information Society Project), and UWM faculty Sandra Braman (Communication) and Richard Grusin (C21, English). And, Joyce and I have represented CIPR at a discussion on “Intellectual Freedom vs. WikiLeaks” at the Brookfield Public Library.

For interested PhD students, we’ve organized an informal reading group on “Information & Power”, led by CIPR Faculty Fellow Sandra Braman.

Stay tuned for announcements of future events and appearances. Follow CIPR on Twitter, and find us on Facebook.