Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Library Records: the future of our history
In addition to your personal library habits, I would like to discuss the practice of maintaining library records for historical research. Pawley was able to access records that indicated which books a patron checked out and how often a patron visited the library. Libraries today take very serious measures to make sure those exact records are not accessible, and in many cases, do not exist. Do you believe that this practice will have an affect on the quality of library history that is written in the future? If so, how do we strike a balance between protecting personal information and providing a true historical record?
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I believe that the ILS that the UW uses allows librarians to track the records of an idividual book but not of a single user. I am not sure if that means names are tied to a the circulation record of a book but I do know the libraires can track the university status of the patron of each charge and reports can be created from that information. Can someone who works more closely with the circulation interface explain further?
At the library where I work, our checkout program allows us to see how many times a particular books has been checked out, but not by whom. The computer keeps a list of who has books that are currently out, but it doesn't save the names once the books are scanned back in.
If for some reason a book is returned without having been properly checked out in the first place, or if a book is used in-house, I just check it out to myself and then check it back in again to make sure the circulation records accurately reflect how often the book is used.
Oh, in response to Hannah's question, librarians are hiding information from the FEDS! Under the Patriot Act, the FBI could demand access to patron records without a warrant. Most librarians oppose this because they want patrons to feel free to check out any books they like without worrying that someone will later use their choice of reading material against them.
Reading on the Middle Border frustrated me because I really wanted to know if Pawley saw Osage, IA as an exception to the rule or as the norm, specifically in terms of patron records. I, like many others, was amazed at the depth available, but I wanted to know if it was common among these small, pioneer town public libraries to keep such detailed circulation records.
All the libraries I have worked in (four total), have used software that immediately purged records. I have had so many patrons over the years come up and ask the reference and circulation desks wanting to read a book they had checked out years previous, sometimes even months, but there was no way to find that info because it simply wasn't there anymore. This has been the case before 9/11 when many libraries converted from paper systems to computer systems. I wonder if it isn't a matter of storage space, in addition to privacy. Records like (especially when patrons can take out a limit of 100 items) can take up so much needed space. I agree with Katie Hanson's comments about how the research Pawley has done cannot happen with the systems as they are now and wonder where that will leave us in the future.
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