Who Knows What You’re Reading? Surveillance Technologies, Libraries and Privacy

As part of the Information Awareness Month, Dr Stuart Ferguson presented a very informative and thought provoking paper entitled “Who Knows What You’re Reading: surveillance technologies, libraries and privacy”.

The presentation centred on an examination of the privacy concerns of using RFID. While RFID is expected to provide many benefits, particularly in supply chain management, there are many legal, ethical and privacy issues that need to be acknowledged and addressed. In particular this can involve intruding on the privacy of citizens without their knowledge, monitoring customer behaviour and the reading of tags from a distance. In relation to libraries in the US, law enforcement agencies are increasingly able to access data held in libraries.

There are three key privacy principles to be noted

a) notice and consent

b) choice – de-activation, i.e. opt in, opt out

c) control – the right to have personal information kept separate from other data

Dr Fergsuon then went on to discuss the benefits of RFID to libraries as well as factors that needed to be considered if considering the implementation of RFID. An important point for libraries is the moral question – “what moral duties do libraries have in the protection of the privacy of patrons?”. Also the questions “What is the obligation of libraries to the user and to the state?” and “Do libraries need a code of ethics?”.

This paper raised a lot of issues which public libraries in particular need to be aware of when considering these surveillance technologies. At a time when RFID is being considered by many libraries, the full implications of its use, in terms of function as well as privacy, moral and legal rights, needs to be understood and addressed before any move towards implementation of this monitoring tool.

This paper will be a contributing paper as part of a series being presented at an International Ethics Conference next month.

Jan Bordoni

Library Manager
Treasury

Information Awareness Month (IAM) - Gala Dinner

Information Awareness Month (IAM), Gala Dinner was held on the 29 May 2008.

This year's events for IAM saw a record number of ACT events for Information Awareness Month. A Gala Dinner hosted by the ACT IAM Committee was held at the Canberra Club on 29 May to close IAM 2008.

IAM is a collaborative event between like bodies within the records, archives, library and information management community and this commonality of purpose reflects the fact that the various bodies are recognised as some of the most widely respected professional bodies in the information management community.

The Guest Speaker was Brand Hoff the founder of Tower Software who spoke of his experiences during many years in the Information management community. A number of companies such as Iron Mountain, Recall, Oraicle and Icognition sponsored tables and Tower Software provided drinks for the dinner. Organisations such as ALIA, NAA, AGLIN and ASA also hosted tables at the dinner.

The dinner provided an opportunity to network with colleagues, clients and be part of the closing event for another successful Information Awareness Month. A good time was had by all and the
event is sure to be on the ACT IAM calendar for 2009.

Kym Holden
DEEWR Library Manager

Information Awareness Month Opening Night 2008

As the ALIAActive Convener I was invited to attend the opening night of 2008 Information Awareness Month (IAM) at the National Archives of Australia (NAA). Ross Gibbs the National Archivist opened the month for IAM. I felt privileged to be there as I had only participated in the committee that organised IAM in a very desultory way. The overall opening night was illuminating because of the diverse range of information management groups attending such as ALIA, AGLIN, the Records Management Association of Australasia (RMAA), the Institute of Information Management (IIM), the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) and actKM.

Each convener was called upon to give a brief summary of what their group is about, how it helps and promotes information professionals and what they were offering as their contributions to IAM. All such group events were listed on the IAM calender. I was interested to see the wide range of seminars and workshops offered such as the AGLIN/ALIA Information Sharing Forum on the Learning Commons presented by Shirley Oakley the University Librarian of Charles Stuart University and the actKM world cafe event.

We were pleased to learn that the NAA has become housed as one of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) portfolio agencies, a better placement for its government recordkeeping focus and heritage function along with other public accountability agencies such as the National Audit Office. Treasury and the like. The opening session was followed by supper and a change to network with others interested in promoting information management. I wish to thank the NAA and in particular Mathew Eggins for all his efforts in organising opening night.

How many library people in your suburb?

Are you curious to know how many librarians, library assistants, or library technicians were recorded as living in your local suburb during the 2006 Census?

Find out using the Census Tables product on the ABS website: www.abs.gov.au/census

5 Easy Steps:
1. select 'View Census Tables by Topic'
2. choose the topic 'Occupation'
3. select the option 'Occupation by Sex - 2006 ANZSCO Alternative View: Culture and Leisure Occupations'
4. click the 'Select Location' button and type your suburb name into the search box
5. click the 'View Census Tables' button and open the Excel table under the 'Details' tab.

Information Awareness Month

May is Information Awareness Month:

the purpose of Information Awareness Month (IAM) is to increase public awareness of the breadth of the information industry through a series of events all through the month of May.

Information Awareness Month has grown into a collaborative event between various bodies within the records/archiving/information management community. ALIA is one of the contributing organisations.

IAM 2008 was launched at the National Archives of Australia by the Director-General of the NAA, Ross Gibbs, on the 1 May. Since then many & varied events have been taking place around Canberra, including breakfasts, seminars, world cafe discussions, and more. Check the events listing for next week's upcoming activities.