OIF Blog

The move to self-service holds (also known as open-shelf holds) has enabled many libraries to continue user hold services despite ongoing staff cuts and budget reductions. But many libraries have implemented self-service hold systems that reveal personally identifiable information – including users’ full names – that link the user to the specific book or materials on hold, thereby compromising the library user’s privacy and confidentiality. Such practices violate the ALA Code of Ethics and may, in some states, violate library confidentiality statutes. In response to this situation, the ALA Council passed a resolution addressing self-service hold practices that encourages both libraries and vendors to adopt self-service hold systems that preserve users’ confidentiality.

Join Deborah Caldwell-Stone, OIF Deputy Director, for a free webinar explaining the legal and ethical standards that support the move to privacy-protective hold systems. This small, interactive live event will also highlight options for self-service hold systems that both protect user privacy and save the library money. We encourage you to bring your questions and ideas for small group discussion.

Registration is limited to 25 attendees and closes at 4 p.m. (Central) today. The webinar will be recorded and an archived webcast will be available at a later date.

Title: “Self-Service Holds: Efficiency doesn’t need to compromise reader privacy”

Date: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 2:00 p.m. Central (3:00 Eastern, 1:00 Mountain, 12:00 Pacific).

Cost: Free.  To register, please email your name, contact information, and the webinar title to oif@ala.org.

Questions? Call Angela Maycock at 312-280-4221 or email amaycock@ala.org.

The American Library Association supports libraries and librarians across the country, who face difficult decisions every day about how to allocate scarce resources in order to meet the wide-ranging information needs of their communities.

To guide decisions about what materials to select for a collection, libraries develop selection policies, which outline the principles and priorities they will follow in selecting items for the library.  Libraries also strive to be responsive to the requests of community members in choosing materials.  Selection is an inclusive process that seeks out those materials that will best satisfy the community’s needs for information, entertainment, and enlightenment.

Recent controversy over the novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” has sparked discussion about the line between selection and censorship in libraries.  Where selection decisions are guided by the professional ethics of librarianship – which emphasize inclusion, access, and neutrality – libraries choosing not to purchase materials that fall outside their defined collection policies and needs are not censors.  Where partisan disapproval or doctrinal pressure guides libraries’ decisions to select or remove materials, then censorship can result.

Materials like “Fifty Shades of Grey” challenge libraries’ professional ideals of open, equitable, unbiased access to information.  They raise important questions about how libraries can best include and reflect the diversity of ideas in our society – even those which some people find objectionable.  In all circumstances, ALA encourages libraries making decisions about their collections to keep in mind their basic missions and the core values of intellectual freedom and providing access to information.