LFI Course Materials/Week one

Week 1: Introduction

• Real time lecture: May 24th 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern
• Welcome everyone! We’re so thrilled to be starting Library Freedom Institute with such an excellent cohort! This week, we’ll be getting acquainted with the course, including curriculum, technology, goals, and each other.

Course overview

Course themes

• LFP mission and history
• Surveillance capitalism
• Harm reduction
• Who holds power on the internet
• Privacy strategies and tools

How we'll organize ourselves: small groups

Small group makeup

• Group 1: Michelle Nitto, Junior Tidal, Qiana Johnson, Symphony Bruce, Nicole Becwar, Michele Alaniz, Jonathan Hernandez Perez (academic librarians)
• Group 2: Ellie Avis, Leigh Ann Hamel, Andrea Puglisi, Wren Kominos-Marvell (rural and semi-rural public librarians)
• Group 3: Grace Riario, Carolyn Bennett Glauda, Patricia B. Ball, Megan Shanholtz, Bel Outwater (directors, assistant directors, and consortia librarians)
• Group 4: Chad Clark, TJ Lamanna, Ashley J. Brown, Stephanie Milberger, Kristy Cooper (suburban public librarians)
• Group 5: Jessica Krill, Julia Wiswell, Haley Holmes, Tracy Treece, Jeffrey Lambert (urban public librarians)
• Group 6: Victor Benitez, Maty Cropley, Kimberly Trinh-Sy, Oscar Gittemeier (urban public librarians)

Small group final project outcomes

The final project will be a comprehensive privacy plan for a library. Every group will work together on components of the final project. This final project should choose from and expand on the following components:

• A library privacy policy and/or example vendor agreement
• A privacy class
• A privacy program that isn't a class
• A display about privacy
• A flyer or poster about a privacy concept
• A staff training
• Something focused on privacy work outside of the library walls, like a letter to a legislator
• Other ideas that the group wishes to add can be submitted when the group submits their roles, or can be added later

Outcomes for this cohort

• Learn to use privacy software that can be installed on both patron machines and public library workstations
• Teach your own train-the-trainer workshops to other librarians in your region.
• Approach members of your community regarding privacy concerns and teach privacy-related community workshops.
• Use your new role as a Privacy Advocate to influence policy and infrastructure.
• Encourage community engagement with privacy policy issues
• Work with your small group to develop a privacy plan that can be implemented in your library or others

Syllabus and weekly layout

• Undergo intensive training (6 months, 5 hours/week)
• Weekly commitments: small group work, lecture, discussion, readings, and tasks
• Tasks are things you’re expected to complete every week. There aren’t other assignments except for the final projects you’ll present with your small group. We’ll check in every few weeks about the status of those projects, and when that happens you can share drafts or just outlines or thoughts.
• Let Alison know if you need to be absent from one of the real-time lectures, or if you need to miss a whole week for any reason.
• Review code of conduct.

Class technology

• Discourse messageboard: libraryfreedom.chat (register an account)
• Zoom video/audio chat/recordings (Zoom meeting ID 912-942-8892)
• Riseup mailing list: [email protected]
• Wiki: libraryfreedom.wiki (register an account)

Please note that all class technology is publicly accessible! That means that the mailing list archives, messageboard, and wiki can all be viewed by anyone. I’ve set it up this way so that the materials we create can easily be shared, but also, I understand that sometimes we might want to talk amongst ourselves, so I’ve created a “private” category on the Discourse messageboard that’s only viewable to our group. You can use this category whenever you want to talk about something that you don’t want the whole world to see.

This week only!

Learning objectives

• Meet other cohort members
• Learn about what other cohort members want to achieve in this course and share our own thoughts
• Review themes and outcomes
• Learn about the history and mission of LFP
• Set personal goals
• Understand small group work strategy

Readings

The Surveillant Assemblage, Kevin D. Haggerty and Richard V. Ericson

Human Contact is Now a Luxury Good

The New Terminology for Privacy

Guest lecturer

No guest this week; Alison will lead the lecture

Discussion

How do you see the surveillant assemblage at work in our lives?

If human contact is becoming a luxury good, what are the implications for privacy?

What terms or concepts were new and noteworthy to you in "The New Terminology for Privacy"? Which of these do you want to learn more about in LFI?

What are your personal goals for this course?

Tasks

• Lecture, readings and discussion forum
• Connect with your small groups and start thinking about who will work on what (small group work sharing plans due the week of June 3rd)
• Create discourse and wiki accounts
• Read through materials on libraryfreedom.wiki