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Related Stories

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Note: I only got through 3/4 of my blog subscriptions. (You guys write a lot!) I'll include the past two weeks' worth of the remaining blogs in next week's edition.

Reader's Advisory: CrimeSpot.net (via). Also: Monster Librarian (via ???). Speaking of fiction: reading fiction => higher empathy (via).

In Brookfield (WI), librarians helped police catch a scammer. Right? Wrong? Discuss.

Phyllis (Something New Every Day) points to a WebJunction suggestion about always being ready to talk up your library. Steven Chabot (Subject/Object) points to a Globe and Mail article about Canada's thriving libraries.

YALSA has a MySpace page (via). Michael Sauers explains how to run Second Life on a public computer. Speaking of: Second Life Library has podcasts.

Jennifer Macaulay (Life as I Know It) asks, Should tech support be an explicit library service? Jennifer Macaulay (Life as I Know It) has a tale from the trenches. Andrea Mercado (LibraryTechtonics) has some recommended reading. Ivan Chew (Rambling Librarian) wonders, if churches are doing it, will libraries have to resort to SMS-speak, too? Michael J. Giarlo (Technosophia) would like to start a BarCamp for New Jersey library geeks.

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Much talk about the press coverage of Fairfax County Public Library's weeding practices: Michael Casey (LibraryCrunch); more comments at librarian.net; Simon Chamberlain (VALIS) points to several more blog posts (via). The library's director responds.

Related to this, there's a long discussion on Ezra Klein's blog about libraries vs. bookstores (via).

Ryan Deschamps (The Other Librarian) asks, is "open weeding" a Library 2.0 concept? More on weeding from Christina Pikas (Christina's LIS Rant).

About the library that is closing for part of the day to keep out unruly teenagers:Michael Casey (LibraryCrunch). Late news: the library decides not to close.

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Sarah Houghton-Jan (LibraryInBlack) points to a Linux.com article about open-source library ILS "Evergreen." Comments from Corey Wallis (librariesinteract.info);

Jessamyn West (librarian.net) writes about Amazon's nownow.com answers-by-email service.

Rochelle Hartman (Tinfoil + Raccoon) points out that, as a profession, library folks "are too damn polite." Comments from Steve Lawson (See Also...); Walt Crawford (Walt at Random).

In Meredith Farkas's blog, Ryan Deschamps (The Other Librarian),

David Lee King has a series of articles about encouraging participations in the wiki world.

Jennifer Macaulay (Life as I Know It) ties together the discussions about library politeness and online participation.

Mark Lindner (Off the Mark) is concerned about the future of the Carnival of the Infosciences.

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BLOGGING

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THE LIGHTER SIDE

Three-letter acronyms can be
Very confusing as you'll see.

Wapsi Square (comic strip) had a sequence set in a library (via)

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On the PUBLIB mailing list, Joe Schallan explains how to save money at conferences.

CONFERENCE NOTES AND PRESENTATIONS

from Nancy Dowd (The "M" Word), what makes a good speaking celebrity.

eVisioning Maryland Libraries (January 10, 2007):
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Five Weeks to a Social Library (February 12-March 12, 2007):
- The list of participants.

....................
This Week in LibraryBlogLand (TWiL) appears on lisnews.org every Monday.

• maybe

  (Score:2) by Chuck (5196) on Monday January 08, @03:40PM (#28346)
  ( Last Journal: Thursday February 15, @01:05PM ) The law says that only documents that reveal the identity of the person are protected. It matters if someone tries to argue they already knew who he was, or that the stuff on the computer was not personally identifying.
  
  I liked this from the story: "a man told police he paid Weber $1,040 for Abercrombie & Fitch shirts he never received ... "
  
  You bought a grand's worth of SHIRTS from a guy on the Interwebs? Really? I would genuinely like to meet that person.

• Re:maybe - but probably not

  (Score:2) by Walt (79) <waltcrawford@gmail.com> on Monday January 08, @04:14PM (#28350)
  ( http://waltcrawford.name/ | Last Journal: Thursday June 28, @06:21PM ) I have to go along with "Maybe."

  I believe confidentiality for circulation history should be absolute: What you read is your own business.

  I believe confidentiality in search history should be just about as absolute, for the same reason.

  But if you walk into a public library and start selling Timez and Rolez watches (spelling intentional--and, yes, there actually are counterfeit Timex watches out there!), that's not a protected activity. That's not speech, it's commerce.

  To the extent that librarians observed what they reasonably believed to be illegal activity, I don't have a problem here.

  Nor, apparently, did the librarians.

  [ Parent ]

• Related thought experiment

  (Score:2) by John (15) on Monday January 08, @03:43PM (#28347)
  ( http://www.tk421.net/vita/ ) I read something like this a few years ago, can't find the original source, though:

• Re:Related thought experiment

  (Score:2) by mdoneil (2301) <lisnewsNO@SPAMoneil.cx> on Monday January 08, @05:01PM (#28355)
  ( http://oneil.cx/WP | Last Journal: Wednesday July 18, @06:22PM ) Save the number where it can neither been taken by the police nor destroyed. Insure the police that it is safe keeping and wait for a court order to access it.

  I'd probably seal it in an envelope and give it to the police. They can get an order to open the envelope, yet they maintain care custody and control of it in the interim. If they fail to get the order the defendant can challenge the propriety of my release of the number (well he can challenge it either way but he is more apt to prevail if I just hand it to them than if a judge says they can have it.)

  --
  "Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." [ Parent ]

• Mind your own business

  (Score:2) by mdoneil (2301) <lisnewsNO@SPAMoneil.cx> on Monday January 08, @04:57PM (#28354)
  ( http://oneil.cx/WP | Last Journal: Wednesday July 18, @06:22PM ) A librarian has no business investigating their patrons' actions based upon their knowledge of a pending information or indictment. That someone has been charged with a crime is of no bearing in the provision of library resources.

  If the librarian were to see, or to have other patrons complain that the patron was actually engaging in illegal behaviour that would be a different kettle of fish but in this case the librarian de facto convicted the patron and violated his right to be free from unnecessary governmental intrusion. When the librarians were acting on the instruction of the police by reporting on his conduct they became agents of the police and their actions are subject to the same evidentiary rules as the police. Therefore the embargoing of the machines after their surveillance after the 'out of order' plan was hatched is remarkably different than a case in which the request for the embargo of the machines was made independently of any action by the librarian (cf: the Newton case).

  Had they not in concert with the police developed an action plan for when the patron used the public computers their embargoing them until an order to examine them was obtained would have not been improper. It would not have been as agents of the police, but simply as citizens concerned that a crime may have been committed. Simply put surveillance of the patron at the request of law enforcement elevates the librarian above a private citizen and thus places additional restrictions on evidence obtained there from.

  I must note that an Grand Jury indictment can no way restrict the defendant from using a computer, the article is simply incorrect when it states

  If a patron is openly committing a crime with a computer such as viewing child pornography that may be seen by others then a librarian or anyone else may certainly inform the police. However to take it upon one's self to contact the police because you feel someone may commit a crime with the library's computers and to enter into an arrangement to spy on the patron without evidence of wrongdoing is reprehensible.

  Either a patron's privacy is sacrosanct, not to be violated except in the rare instance when the Courts have found that the public order compels them to issue an Order to open those records, including any computer use trail; or a patron's privacy is something a librarian may violate when she feels it might be a good idea. If librarians are to make decisions such as that I fear the consequences. Librarians are librarians not law enforcement officers or judges and to act as one brings disrespect on the profession.

  No matter what you think your patrons may do you have no right, and certainly no responsibility to spy on them.

  This library's actions only serve to damage the reputation of the profession. In Newton a librarian refused to cooperate with police when someone threatened to blow up a school using a library computer. In this instance a librarian spied on someone who was selling fake T-shirts. The public will see this as a matter of perspective, they protect the bombers but entrap the people selling knock-off shirts on eBay.

  No wonder few people know we are required to have an advanced degree.

  --
  "Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought."

• Wisconsin Statutes 43.30. Public library records

  (Score:1) by Anonymous Patron on Monday January 08, @06:40PM (#28356)

  Wisconsin Statutes 43.30. Public library records
  
  (1) Records of any library which is in whole or in part supported by public funds, including the records of a public library system, indicating the identity of any individual who borrows or uses the library's documents or other materials, resources, or services may not be disclosed except by court order or to persons acting within the scope of their duties in the administration of the library or library system, to persons authorized by the individual to inspect such records, to custodial parents or guardians of children under the age of 16 as required under sub. (4) , or to libraries as authorized under subs. (2) and (3) (emphasis supplied)

  
  

  (2) A library supported in whole or in part by public funds may disclose an individual's identity to another library for the purpose of borrowing materials for the individual only if the library to which the individual's identity is being disclosed meets at least one of the following requirements:
  
  (a) The library is supported in whole or in part by public funds.
  
  (b) The library has a written policy prohibiting the disclosure of the identity of the individual except as authorized under sub. (3)
  
  (c) The library agrees not to disclose the identity of the individual except as authorized under sub. (3)
   

  
  

  (3) A library to which an individual's identity is disclosed under sub. (2) and that is not supported in whole or in part by public funds may disclose that individual's identity to another library for the purpose of borrowing materials for that individual only if the library to which the identity is being disclosed meets at least one of the requirements specified under sub. (2) (a) to (c)

  
  

  (4) Upon the request of a custodial parent or guardian of a child who is under the age of 16, a library supported in whole or part by public funds shall disclose to the custodial parent or guardian all library records relating to the use of the library's documents or other materials, resources, or services by that child.

  
  
  

  Arguably, turning over the computer without a court order - a computer that most likely identified many other patrons as users of that resource - violated state law as well as professional ethics. I echo mdoneil's comments in this regard.

• Why so little response?

  (Score:2) by mdoneil (2301) <lisnewsNO@SPAMoneil.cx> on Wednesday January 10, @12:10AM (#28381)
  ( http://oneil.cx/WP | Last Journal: Wednesday July 18, @06:22PM ) The Newton case where the librarian obstructed police drew many response, this case in which the librarian acted in concert with the police drew only a handful so far.

  I wonder why there are so few responses. I think the librarians were wrong in both cases. Does anyone else not want to defend or condem this librarian? Heck I expected as many responses as the little red book story (although this is not fiction).

  --
  "Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought."