While it would be a more cut-and-dried case of patron privacy to deny wholesale snooping in your patron databases, what about when the police come to your library with a patron’s wallet? If you’re in Johnson County, giving the police that patron’s phone number might get you fired. I know the police have shown up at our library more than once looking for patron information supposedly in the interests of returning a wallet or a PDA. I believe our policy is to offer to call the patron, but not give out that patron’s personal information [without a warrant] in accordance with our privacy policy. Of course, any privacy policy is only as strong as the weakest link who has database access, right?
Category: libraries
alternative press center library, a history
There’s a good article in Library Juice this week about the Alternative Press Center Library in Baltimore MD.
photo experimenting – my library slide show
One of the great benefits to living in a rural community is that going to a foreign country is a big deal. I have done a slide show of pictures from my trip to Australia twice now, once at a senior center and once yesterday at my library. Thirteen people showed up and we had a good time. Here are a few photos from the slide show along with some things I learned about doing slide shows at a library.
rudy’s library, monowi nebraska
I’m a sucker for heartwarming stories like the town with a population of one and a library with 5,000 volumes. [thanks tj]
teen things to do @ your library
Teens are a tough crowd at the library. Libraries have been having some successes in bringing kids in to the library and keeping them there. Here’s a few ideas culled from recent emails: Shannon is compiling tips for starting a teen knitting group, the Carnegie Library in Pittsburg has a Dance Dance revolution session on Friday afternoons, find some more suggestions on YALSA’s programming for teens pages