Emily Fardoux LIS 701 03

ALA Core Value: Confidentiality and Privacy

Protecting user privacy and confidentiality is necessary for intellectual freedom and fundamental to the ethics and practice of librarianship. American Library Association

Mon, Lorri & Lydia Eato Harris. The Death of the Anonymous Librarian. Reference Librarian 52. (2011): 110-113. Academic Search Premier [EBSCO]. Database. 12 Nov 2011. Article Summary
Mon and Harris discuss at length the anonymous librarian, a thin-lipped, pencil-skirted woman with horn-rimmed reading glasses on the tip of her nose and an exquisitely neat bun at the nap of her neck. This invisible woman provides information to users quickly and efficiently, so well that library users do not see her worth as a professional. The authors discuss different aspects of anonymity at the library the staff, the institution itself, and its patrons providing a few suggestions for change sometimes gradual, other times bold.

Brief Author Biography

Lorri Mon is an assistant professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at Florida State Universitys College of Communication and Information. She has done extensive research on digital/virtual reference as well as digital libraries and e-government. Lydia Eato Harris is a professor of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University.

Discussion Topics & Questions: The Costs of Privacy in the Library

Personnel Privacy: The Librarian as [Anonymous] Professional - Issue: Library staff knows frequent patrons by name yet are anonymous themselves, often despite presence of nametags. - Issue: Loss of face to face contact in virtual reference situations is often replaced with first-name introductions with or without pseudonyms this are of reference must eliminate anonymity lest the librarian seem automated or robotic. - Issue: In such a social and interactive world, how can we as library professionals expect to maintain anonymity while still asserting our authority? - Suggestion: Create a brand or character for use online at my library, the Library Gerbils (Arthur, Merlin & Lancelot) are the voice of the Youth Department everywhere on the web except youth book reviews, though they have written a few. - Suggestion: Post brief biographies of library staff (with optional photos) on the webpage for patrons. My library is working on a similar project to this creating a guide to the library for patrons with special needs, including portraits of all library staff at public desks, to prepare them for what they will encounter at the library. This sort of introduction would benefit any library user librarians should be visible both on a personal and professional level. That users want a personal connection with librarians should be heartening to the profession (Mon & Harris, 2011).
Fardoux

Institutional Privacy: Asserting Professional Identity and Ending Anonymity - Issue: Libraries are often not given credit by patrons where credit is due example: digitizing materials, providing database access, assisting with the research process. Despite anonymity, libraries and librarians are still held accountable for information given. - Issue: Loss of implication and importance of the term professional when applied to libraries because of (according to authors): o Assumptions of librarian stereotype o Most patrons dont know what a librarian does / how a good library works the profession has become expendable anyone could do it! o Other professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, have no anonymity with their clients why should librarians be any different? - Issue: General e-mail addresses are daunting to patrons asking questions. - Suggestion: Be a transparent library. o Should this be a style of public interaction / presence that librarians should strive for? o What is the best way to get patrons to take advantage of this and fully understand and utilize this transparency to their benefit? - Suggestion: Patrons should refer to the library as MY library with MY librarians; we can help them get to that point. With a more personable presence comes a need to participate in community events and foster a presence in the community outside the library building. Patron Privacy: Library Use of Web 2.0 and Social Networking - Issue: Assimilating Web 2.0 with current library practice regarding privacy and confidentiality of patron information is difficult because of the social, interactive, user-driven nature of Web 2.0 use. - Issue: Its so much easier to just find information on the web than to go to the library and look for it. - Suggestion: Create an explicit policy for website and social network usage for staff and patrons make sure to include policy on sharing of personal information. - Suggestion: Overpower web competition. What can your library do for you that no other place can? What information can your librarians provide for you that Google cannot? What can your library do for you that the Internet cannot?

Conclusions
Librarians should strive to eliminate anonymity with their patrons in this socially changing world; as more and more young people join the profession, this has begun to happen. A change in public perception of the librarian will be a powerful tool that can serve to reposition the library as a source of authoritative information.
Lancelot, Arthur & Merlin, Gerbils of the Highland Park Public Library Youth Department

Fardoux