From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 21:18:20 -0500

From Slate, on the future of libraries and, as they go increasingly
digital, the challenges they face to protecting patrons' privacy:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/11/libraries_need_to_protect_patron_data_as_they_turn_high_tech.html

Today, the computerization of the library’s management systems is
nearly complete, raising the specter of exclusivity and
restrictiveness. Libraries—once the site of invention for the
classification of information—have become consumers of information
services and data management products. They contract with a variety of
vendors who sell e-book services, journals databases, checkout kiosks,
interactive catalogues, circulation records systems, computer
reservation systems, and more. Libraries purchase business management
software to set up integrated library systems that provide back-end
support to the institutions’ myriad databases. And of course, they
rely on third-party services to set up and run public computers and
provide access to the Internet.

How data flows and subsequently how patrons, not to mention staff, are
able to access, store, and share information depends on third-party
systems contracted by the library. And this dependency means third
parties shape the conditions under which data flowing in and out of
libraries is used, exploited, or exposed. Third parties set the terms
of controls or protections, and that can lead to situations where
patron data is used against users’ wishes or knowledge.