LibraryLaw Blog

Do you know how to look at a law enforcement officer's badge and I.D?

Sheila Bryant is an unusual library student. She is a former correctional officer with training and experience in law enforcement. Sheila is a great bridge for library folks who increasingly need to know how to work with law enforcement.

I met Sheila when I was invited to speak in Florida by the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, thanks to Charlie Parker and Karen Wilber. The session was held at Stetson Law School in a gorgeous new building.

I was upstaged by Hurricane Jeanne. If you can help out - the Florida Library Association has established a hurricane relief fund for libraries and library staff.

Only a day after Jeanne, I was amazed at how many librarians turned out. I'm pretty sure it's because Florida librarians (a lively bunch!) get to deal with a lot of tricky legal scenarios... many more than most groups I've talked with. In fact my rough estimate puts Florida at #1 on "may you live in interesting times" chart.

Back to the point, I asked Sheila to write up some practical advice for librarians, and I'm pleased to see she penned a most useful piece which I post here. I hope she continues to contribute to this blog and to librarianship generally on this topic.

Do you know how to look at a law enforcement officer's badge? Click below for Sheila's advice.

how did I miss Amanda Welsh's blog on privacy and identity?

I really enjoyed Amanda Welsh's brand new book, The Identity Theft Protection Guide. How could I have missed it that she uses a blog to update it? She just let me know that she added an entry on library records here. I'm going to subscribe to her blog on identity protection.

Librarians and archivists file brief to support access to Unabomber's papers

The ACLU filed a brief Oct 19 on behalf of the Freedom to Read Foundation and the Society of American Archivists. It supports public access to the Unabomber's original papers, arguing that copies are insufficient. According to the ACLU press release Oct 20, Ted Kaczynski wants to donate his journals to the Joseph Labadie collection at the University of Michigan, the University wants to accept the papers, but the federal government opposes the donation. I've used that collection - it's a fascinating special collection of materials on radical social and political movements.

Thanks to Richard Pearce-Moses for the heads up.

Are Libraries Places to Learn or Engage in Illegality?

Raizel has a new article at LLRX.com worth checking out: LLRX -- Are Libraries Places to Learn or Engage in Illegality? A nice feature about reading it online: it hotlinks to key library court cases, like Pico, Kreimer, Brown v Louisiana and the ALA Cipa case.

Should I ask library patron about the Nigerian money scam documents he's printing?

Question asked by Patrick in yesterday's InfoPeople webcast on library privacy:

What if you are helping someone to print email documents and notice they look like they are related to the infamous Nigerian money scam. I don't know if they are

A. researching,
B. initiating a scam, or
C. a victim...

should I ask the patron about the documents and his purpose for needing them??

More background...I am the computer systems person in the library and a library school student (SJSU!). The patron had already worked for some time with a librarian to get the documents to print each one onto a single page and was not having success. When I arrive there were piles of printouts already. Since they were documents from the patrons personal web email acct I made conscious effort to not pay attention to the content. Well, some things just are impossible to ignore and still work on the problem and I saw they looked like Nigerian government and banking documents. I also noticed a reference to $10 million dollars. I became suspicious that these were some of the Nigerian money scam documents I've heard about many times but never have actually seen details of. Alas, I did not know what to do with my suspicions. The previous librarian either did not make the connection with the documents I did or else did not wish to broach the subject with the patron. The patron also appeared to be a black African and spoke with an African accent. I did now know which of the 3 possibilities listed in the 1st paragraph he might be involved with. And I did not know what legal boundaries I might be crossing to inquire as to the purpose of the documents.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated! I did not see any place on the blog.librarylaw.com site to post a question other than to a specific article already posted. I will be happy to return there for yours and other's answers though. Thanks.

Note: Patrick emailed this to me at [email protected] - and I posted it here for reader discussion

Blog blocked at library

There's a lively discussion (20 comments and counting) at isthatlegal.org about a blog that's been blocked by the Seminole (Fla) County Public Library:

IsThatLegal? Why, No. It's Not.

A reader informs me that this blog has been blocked by the Seminole(Fla.) County Public Library.

It's hard to know what got me on the banned blogs list. Perhaps the librarian is a big fan of Duran Duran. Or of Siegfried and Roy.

Or maybe it's the dog.

Seriously, this seems like an odd censorship policy to me. There could be a story here. Drop by your public library and see whether you can reach the blogs you like to read. (Unless they're, uh, you know, not safe for work.) If you can't reach some of them, ask your librarian why not, and leave a comment here.

Sounds like a good idea -- and maybe it turns out that some off-the-shelf filtering software blocks some blogs, which suggests that messages to the filter producer (once it's identified) might help get them unblocked wholesale.

via The Volokh Conspiracy

Don't post social security numbers in California

A question came up in yesterday's webcast about social security number use by libraries. California passed a new law governing the use of social security numbers that is summarized by the Office of Privacy Protection, Department of Consumer Affairs:

http://www.privacy.ca.gov/recommendations/ssnrecommendations.pdf

Thank you, Joanne McNabb, Chief, Office of Privacy Protection, Department of Consumer Affairs.

Calif. Civil Code Sects. 1798.85-1798.86, 1785.11.1, 1785.11.6 and 1786.60

Library Privacy Audits and Search Warrants: Preparing for Inquiries into User Records - webcast Nov 4

Karen Coyle and I will be doing a free webcast for California librarians Nov 4th on Library Privacy Audits and Search Warrants: Preparing for Inquiries into User Records. Others may view it after it's archived (about a day later) for free. To watch a webcast, you just need a computer with a fast connection. Once you log in, you get a video presentation complete with powerpoints and handouts. If you watch it live, you can "chat" and type in your questions.

The renewed awareness of privacy issues sparked by the Patriot Act creates an opportunity to take stock of library policies and procedures. Since library records are now almost exclusively in machine-readable form, librarians have become the caretakers of a significant data bank of personal information relating to library users. How effectively is your library protecting privacy? Are your policies and procedures up-to-date with current technology? Does your staff know how to respond to a search warrant? when must records be turned over? What records do you keep? The best way to find out how well you are protecting patron privacy is to perform a privacy audit. This presentation will give you an outline of legal and technical issues that an audit must take into account.

This webcast would benefit library administrators, those responsible for library systems and library systems staff.

Webcast: November 4, 2004
Time: Noon - 1:00pm PST
Speaker: Mary Minow & Karen Coyle

http://www.infopeople.org/training/webcasts/11-04-04_privacy.html

library privacy webcast archived

I did a webcast today for Infopeople which will be archived for anyone to see for free:

Privacy is an essential component to the freedom to read. When we know our behavior is observed, it changes. How do federal and state laws protect user privacy? What is the difference between anonymity and confidentiality? How can a local library policy add additional privacy protections for users? Does your privacy policy promise more than it can guarantee by law? This webcast will lay a foundation of relevant privacy law for libraries, and then discuss guidelines for developing or revising a library privacy policy.

This webcast would benefit library administrators, those responsible for library systems and in-charge librarians.

http://www.infopeople.org/training/webcasts/archived.html

Is that what they mean by legally blind? Bad news for web users with visual impairments

Access Now lost its appeal to make the Southwest Airlines website accessible to users with visual impairments. The district court said that the website was not a "place of public accommodation" as defined by Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Upshot: since it's not a physical place, so it didn't have to be accessible. Some innovative arguments were raised on appeal, but the 11th Circuit court said it would not consider these arguments since they had not been raised in the district court. Perhaps the next case will fare better.

What does it mean for libraries? Private libraries (including private university and school libraries) are subject to Title III, and under the facts of this case, their websites need not be accessible to users.

Public libraries (including public university and school libraries) are subject to Title II which has different criteria for accessibility under the ADA.

Access Now v Southwest, ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 02-16163 (Sept 24, 2004)

via Stanford Center for Internet and Society