Librarian fired for ‘good deed’ that violated confidentiality

Anonymous Patron writes “What’s the old saying, no good deed goes unpunished? Steve Roberts would probably agree. The Johnson County Sun reports on a sad situation. An Overland Park police officer asked Roberts for the telephone number of a library patron whose wallet had been found in a supermarket. Roberts immediately went to his supervisor and his supervisor’s supervisor, and described what had happened. He was fired.
“I stuck my neck out and got it chopped off,” Roberts said. “You violate policy and there’s no more discussion. I was fired for trying to do the right thing … helping to return a wallet. I thought I was doing a good deed.””

February 10, 2005 by Blake Uncategorized 7

GregS* says:

February 10, 2005 at 9:46 pm

stupid is as stupid does
I felt sorry for him up until he said this “I knowingly stuck my neck out,” Roberts said. “I have no problem with what I’ve done, and I would do it again.”

There were plenty of alternative solutions and not being willing to acknowledge that means he needs to go.

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djfiander says:

February 10, 2005 at 9:56 pm

Re:stupid is as stupid does

I agree. Here’s a short list of alternatives:
- Have the police office tell me the name of the patron, and I’ll call the patron.
- Point the officer at the phone book in the reference collection.
- Heck, look the patron up in the phone book and give the cop the number.
Of course, there’s also the fact that the cops have access to information sources well beyond what the average librarian does. If the officer couldn’t get the phone company to release the number, I don’t know who could.

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exlibriscat says:

February 11, 2005 at 12:20 am

Re:stupid is as stupid does
How is checking with his superiors to determine the appropriate course of action a bad solution? And why was he fired for that? Maybe we don’t have all the details, because this doesn’t make any sense.

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deborah says:

February 11, 2005 at 12:21 am

Re:stupid is as stupid does
Ditto. Even when I was an undergraduate library assistant, we knew what to do with a request like this: take the name, and call the patron ourselves. If a 19-year-old can figure that out…

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exlibriscat says:

February 11, 2005 at 12:23 am

Note to self–next time read the article first.
Ohh…he gave the officer the patron’s phone number and THEN told his superiors about it. Yeah, that was pretty dumb. He should have asked his superiors BEFORE taking any action, if he wasn’t sure of what to do.

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Bibliofuture says:

February 11, 2005 at 1:02 am

Independent Source
If the phone number address of the person could have been found in a public source such as the phone book then I think this worker should not have been fired because the information was not really confidential. Also, why would a warning not been in order in this type of situation instead of a termination?

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Cyberpunk Librarian says:

February 11, 2005 at 2:26 am

Re:Independent Source

If the phone number address of the person could have been found in a public source such as the phone book then I think this worker should not have been fired because the information was not really confidential. Also, why would a warning not been in order in this type of situation instead of a termination?

Confidentiality is always based upon the source. Sure the name and number may be available in a non-confidential source like a phone book. And yes, phone books aren’t confidential. But library records are and you can’t say that “just because this patron information is available elsewhere means I can share it”.

I’m not sure of the laws and policies of this area or this library. At my library, which I think has fairly typical laws and policies, this would have been a firing offense for two reasons:
- Violation of the confidentiality of library records is against library policy.
- Library records are held confidential by state law in Washington. Therefore the employee would have not only violated library policy, but they broke a law as well.
One’s video rental information is usually confidential but do you really want a clerk sharing that information?

It all boils down to this- this person broke library policy and maybe even a state law. It doesn’t help that almost every librarian on the face of the planet feels that all patron record information is Grade A Top Secret and it doesn’t help that the largest library association in America backs this philosophy 100%. As a librarian or even as a library employee he could have come up with half a dozen sources (no exaggeration) to get the same information without looking it up in the patron records.

Did he deserve to get fired? Maybe. Sure this was a stupid mistake, but if he did indeed break a state confidentiality law, then the library’s hands are pretty much tied.

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