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Library Privacy Policy Working Group

Current Work in Progress

• Sample process framework being developed (Jen, Mack)
• Sample talking points (Alison)
• Establishing meeting schedule (Mark)

Talking points

• Ethics/core values: Privacy is one of our core values, and is fundamental to so many of our other values like intellectual freedom and access. If we’re failing to consider privacy, we’re failing at the foundational principles of librarianship.
  • Alison will be adding a few expanded points to each of these categories.
• Legal compliance: Many states require library record confidentiality by law, and good privacy policies can help us be compliant with the law.
• Data stewardship: Libraries have a lot of patron data, and a strong privacy policy can help us be good stewards of this data: understanding what we have, what we keep, for how long, what we’ll do in the event of a data breach, and so on.
• New services/software: A good privacy policy can help us evaluate potential new software and services.
• Policy for crisis management: A good privacy policy can help under stress, eg if we receive a data request from law enforcement.
• Policy into practice: Policy creation is an opportunity to reflect on practice, and perhaps a good time to conduct a privacy audit of all library services and systems.
• Staff training: Privacy policy enforcement can be made easier if staff are regularly trained on library values.
• Patrons: Privacy policies should cover all library services and systems, but also be simple and readable so that patrons and staff can easily understand them.
• IT talking point (security focused)
• General privacy talking point

Resources

• LFI Crash Course presentation
• Cohort 3 notes
• LFI Privacy Policy Guide

Sample Privacy Policies

• NYPL privacy policy
• NYPL privacy policy FAQ

Meeting Minutes

9/28/21

• Jen started this process framework document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dPwzyfBdhlOSyf-LAcRYSBMDCoPRdMMcHuQjaSbox9Q/edit?usp=sharing
• Mack is going to take on the next step of adding process framework
• Alison is going to expand on the talking points
• Everyone is going to continue looking into privacy policies and add the good ones here

9/2/21

9/2/21, 10am EDT

• Attendance
  • Alison Macrina
  • Jen Wilson
  • John Mack Freeman
  • Mark Swartz
  • Ashley Teagle
  • Marisol
  • Ayoola
• Introductions
• Review of previous notes and needs
• Where to go from here
  • Talking points for colleagues to get started with
    • Getting library boards and lawyers involved
    • Expressing value of the effort and people time
    • Why making it simple, understandable, and effective is important
    • Potential talking points
      • Alison will take point on this. First draft coming within the next week.
      • Doing this work well at the outset takes work, but if it’s done well, it will just work and won’t require ongoing work
  • What is step one
    • Document what starting this process is
    • JEN WILSON: What are the first steps at your institution so we can build a listing of potential pathways? Creating a basic framework with potential holes and marking potential pain points
      • Consider notating role of the person writing the path for generalizability
  • Considering how to present this process
    • Graphic design
    • Chunking/challenge approach
• Notate along the way what can be generalized verses what is specific
  • Academic vs. Public, small vs. big, bureaucratic vs. free-form

7/29/21

• 7/29/21, 3pm EDT
• Attendance
  • Alison Macrina
  • Marisol
  • Ayoola White
  • Camille Peters
  • Jen Wilson
  • Jodi Jacques
  • Khalil E.
  • Leigh Ann
  • John Mack Freeman
• Introductions
  • Discussed where everyone is from and the status of their privacy policy work. Variety of library types. Most people are in the early stages of drafting their privacy policies (or policy templates).

Where we’re at

• • There aren’t a lot of models for good practices right now
• Resources that exist
  • LFP Template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a9n2SAYLua0ELQzAcJtbfpxWg2MRkucL7sM92aniNMo/edit
  • Good Policies
    • Claire (community college) [NEED TO GET A COPY]
    • Twitter (framework not content) (in shared folder)
    • San Francisco Public Library (Khalil’s colleagues recommended) (in shared folder)
  • ALISON: Share crash course curriculum on what needs to be in a privacy policy: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WZNx4zsw9hjHdUfGBMM1dlStJSdMn44W/view?usp=sharing and also https://libraryfreedom.wiki/html/public_html/index.php/Main_Page/Crash_Courses/Systems_and_Policies/Week_three
  • What are all the things that need to be covered in a privacy policy philosophy and service wise?
  • Privacy Field Guides from ALA coming in print only (ALA Privacy Toolkit is different)
    • Erin and Bonnie are working on this; timeline unclear
• Things that don’t exist that we need
  • Good policies that we can use as a jumping off point
  • Explanatory document for templates to make it more user-friendly for others to put in place
  • Talking points/presentation to make to colleagues/boards/etc. that may have questions
  • Walkthrough on where to get started (what’s step one, where to go after that)
  • Regular meeting structure; time to get together on Zoom to work on policy together
• What would be useful for group to do together going forward
  • Build a collaborative space of what we’re working on
  • Ability to sub in people from our individual working groups as needed to take part in working group
• Things to document in the future
  • Unexpected hurdles on the path to a privacy policy (pushback, leadership issues, etc.)