By the IFC Privacy Subcommittee

Data Privacy Day is on January 28. It’s a great reminder (or nudge) to spruce up your library privacy practices. We’ve got the perfect tools to get you started (and with minimal effort), too. We’ll be sharing 7 privacy field guides in 7 days.

What are the Privacy Field Guides?

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, in partnership with the American Library Association, sponsored the creation of the Privacy Field Guides. They contain practical, hands-on exercises for you to create a more privacy-focused library. They are designed for academic, public, and school libraries of all types. Any library worker can benefit from using the guides, and we know you will find at least one action you personally can take to improve library privacy.

There are currently 7 guides available for free via printable PDFs or an interactive website. You can also buy the book version. We’ll be highlighting one per day with you. We’ll go over the following:

• Where can you find it?
• Who’s it for?
• What’s covered?
• Why should you check it out?

Day 3 – Non-Tech Privacy

Where can you find it?

The printable PDF is available in the privacy section of the ALA website. It’s also available on the interactive website.

Who’s it for?

You don’t have to be a tech whiz or have access to your library’s catalog, vendors, or information technology to enact healthy privacy practices.

This guide is meant to help you navigate some areas in your library that are often overlooked when thinking about privacy. Use this guide to help your library protect users’ privacy, even when they’re offline.

What’s covered?

• Making privacy a priority in building design and layout
• Minimizing paper and digital documents that contain personal information
• Making it easy for users to find information without involving staff or library systems

Why should you check it out?

The exercises help you take immediate action. This is most definitely true in “Follow the Paper Trail”. This exercise has you tracking down paper forms, receipts, logs, any paper with personally identifiable information (PII). Complete the exercise by checking the retention and storage policies associated with those documents. This exercise is also scalable. Try it out at your own workstation first.

What’s next?

On Day 4, we’ll share details about the “Data Lifecycles” field guide.

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The Intellectual Freedom Committee‘s Privacy Subcommittee monitors ongoing privacy developments in technology (in cooperation with the Library Information Technology Association (LITA)), politics and legislation (in cooperation with the Committee on Legislation (COL)), as well as social and cultural trends that impact individual privacy and confidentiality, both in libraries and the wider world.   It is charged with identifying privacy needs and resources for librarians and library users; proposing action on resolutions, policies, and guidelines addressing privacy, confidentiality, and data security; developing educational, informational, and promotional projects addressing privacy, confidentiality, and data security issues; and collaborating with other member groups and organizations within and without ALA on matters within its charge.