LibraryLaw Blog

New role for library employees: sex offender check-in officer

Charlie Parker tells me that Florida has a new bill, S1624, that would require sex offenders (with victims under 18) to immediately identify themselves to library staff before using a public library.

"If the victim was under the age of 18, a prohibition against entering a public library without immediately notifying an employee of the library of the sex offender's presence and intent to use the resources of the library.  As used in this subparagraph, the term "immediately" means moving from the entrance of the public library in a straight line to the nearest work station occupied by an employee of the public library.  The sex offender may not move from that work station until the employee acknowledges the presence of the sex offender.  Any sex offender who violates this subparagraph commits a felony of the third degree.."

The bill also prohibits sex offenders (with victims under 18) from working for pay or as a volunteer at schools, day cares, parks, playgrounds, pet stores, libraries, zoos, theme parks or other places where children regularly congregate...

Minow take: Although I like the prohibition against sex offenders working or volunteering at libraries, I am concerned about the proposed new role of library employee as sex offender check-in officer.   Does this mean the library person must then keep an eye on the patron?  Is there funding for extra staff to do this?  What kind of relationship does this really entail, and does it put the library employee at some risk?  Will there be an expectation that the librarian will keep the offender away from the children... and if so, what if she fails?

What chill does it have on the freedom of the offender, who, having served his (or her)time, may be trying to get self-help information to deal with his issues problems?*    

A librarian recently asked me about her own scenario, in which a library employee was getting a divorce, and there was a restraining order keeping her ex away from her.  We talked about the fact that this meant he was kept out of his own public library, since that's where the employee worked.  And yet, in that case, the ex was not kept out of other public libraries.  His freedom to receive information in the public library (a constitutional right established at least in the Third Circuit in the Kreimer case) may have been hampered, but it was not curtailed.  He just needed to drive further to the next community. 

*issues changed to problems per anon's comment below

Call for authors on legal series for librarians

Call for Authors: a new legal series for librarians and other information professionals

Tomas A. Lipinski, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., Co-Director and Associate Professor, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Neal Schuman Publishers, Inc., proudly announce a new series addressing the legal issues faced by librarians, information professionals and educators-The Legal Advisor for Librarians, Educators, and Information Professionals.

Dr. Lipinski and Neal-Schuman Publishers invite quality proposals from prospective authors in the areas of First Amendment issues (access to facilities, displays, censorship, etc.), privacy and USA PATRIOT Act concerns, copyright issues, ADA compliance, donor relations, the legalities of digital libraries and archives, and any related topics of interest.

From Beyond the Job

Call for papers. First Monday celebrates its 10 year anniversary with Open Content conference May 15-17 in Chicago

Very cool.  First Monday, edited by Ed Valuaskas, is convening a fascinating conference,  FM 10 Openness: Code, Science and Content in Chicago May 15-17, 2006. 

Call for papers: abstracts due Feb 6, papers due May 1st.

The conference is underwritten by The Open Society Institute, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The University of Illinois at Chicago University Library and The Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT), University of Maastricht... making registration fees very low, but limited to the first 300 who register.  So hurry.

p.s. I'm proud to say I'm Legal Editor at First Monday (though not a conference planner.)

Museum Law is actually of interest to Library Law folks...

... because we face many of the same issues. Copyright, digitization projects, privacy, gifts, free speech etc.

So... here's info on an upcoming (expensive) conference in Chicago:

Legal Issues in Museum Administration

Wednesday-Friday, March 29-31, 2006
Chicago (Millennium Knickerbocker)

Cosponsored by The Smithsonian Institution
with the cooperation of the American Association of Museums

Legal Document for Libraries that Offer Proctoring?

Do any libraries have an attorney-reviewed document that users must sign before the library proctors their exams?  That is, one that clearly states that an honor system is used and the library is not responsible if a student is found to be cheating in some way?

Library of Congress will hold library copyright roundtables in March

Study Group to Host Public Roundtables in March 2006 on Copyright Exceptions for Libraries and Archives

From the Copyright Office:

A committee appointed by the Library of Congress will hold two public roundtables in March 2006—in Los Angeles and in Washington, D.C.— to gather insights and opinions on how to revise copyright exceptions for libraries and archives (Section 108 of the Copyright Act).

The committee consists of independent experts from the commercial and not-for profit sectors. The roundtables, which are free and open to the public, will be held Wednesday, March 8, in Los Angeles and on Thursday, March 16, in Washington, D.C.

The committee, known as the Section 108 Study Group, convened in April 2005 under the sponsorship of the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office to re-examine the exceptions and limitations applicable to libraries and archives under the Copyright Act, specifically in light of the changes produced by the widespread use of digital technologies since the last significant study in 1988.

Summary of what I learned about library patron records, RSS feeds, Library Elf in plain English - plus a new way to look at lobsters

Although I've gotten some good comments to my postings about patron privacy and RSS feeds, I've gotten lots of reactions that make me feel like I "have lobsters crawling out of my ears." (description borrowed from Paul Holliday, Cranston Public Library.)

That is, just seeing "RSS Feed Security" makes some folks feel a little gooey, even when they otherwise have great clarity on the importance of patron privacy. Yet what good does it do to take a stand against the PATRIOT Act if library records are not terribly private in the first place?

Here's a summary of a series of posts on what I've learned as I've tried out Library Elf - a third party service that offers email and RSS delivery of your own patron record, as well as the records of other cards you input.  This can be done without your library's involvement, since the Elf finds library patron databases on its own.

Problem One: By signing up for RSS feeds, some library users can unwittingly show others what they have checked out.

I accidentally stumbled on live patron records, including email addresses, first names, and titles of books checked out, on hold etc.  I found them by typing "library elf" into a bloglines search box.  What I saw were records of patrons from various libraries who signed up for Library Elf's RSS delivery to Bloglines.com, a popular web-based RSS reader.

Library Elf took quick action (A+ on responsiveness) after my discovery and immediately stopped sending out those particular RSS feeds. It also issued a warning to users about this issue. Today it says "error error error" if you do the search. In fact, if you've never seen an RSS feed, congratulations for reading so far into this post.  To see one, do the Bloglines search right now and click on one of the matches. You'll see a frozen snapshot of pretty much what I saw. You may have to scroll down to see the actual patron records.

The Seattle and Ann Arbor public libraries offer direct RSS feeds from their libraries (don't need Elf) to deliver patron records. Maybe your library does too.  These libraries have apparently been grappling with the privacy issue for some time, and do not show the patron's email address in the RSS feed. Seattle shows the patron's first name (not bad for "Joe" but not so great for "Esmerelda").   Ann Arbor shows no names, no identifying information. 

Both Seattle and Ann Arbor issue warnings to users that their feeds may be public, though Seattle's warning makes it sound like you can set your feeds to "private." (In reality, even setting a feed to "private" when using Bloglines does not make it private).

How to fix it: Probably look to Ann Arbor District Library as a model - no names, no identifying information, warnings to patrons.

Problem Two: Even when patrons don't sign up for RSS feeds or even know what they are, snoops can sometimes get RSS feeds to see what other people have checked out -- if the library has weak patron database security.

Libraries that let you see your record just by typing in the card number (and sometimes a PIN like the last four digits of your phone number) have pretty-poor-privacy-security.  At one level, I guess I always knew that, but using Library Elf made me realize that it's a bigger problem than I realized. 

That is, signing up with Elf (or a related service if there is one), allows you to enter multiple library cards all at once, and get the records sent to you regularly, by RSS or by email.  Either way, you don't have to go back time after time to hunt for records.  Takes 99% of the work out it - just take five minutes to set it up one time, and get other-people's-library-records delivered to your computer til the end of time.  Quick, easy, convenient snooping.

How to fix it:  (1) Libraries could stop letting patrons into library patron databases or (2) Libraries could greatly strengthen the passwords needed to get in.  Don't use card numbers and phone numbers. Let patrons set up their own user names and strong passwords. 

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As always, feel free to comment with clarifications or corrections.  I'm not a techie, but a library law consultant, concerned with privacy of patron records.

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Jan 6 note - I'm still tinkering with some wording in this post to try to make it clearer - if I think I'm changing any substance I'll try to indicate that.  - MM