LibraryLaw Blog

Beginnings of a library state law wiki - from Paul Neuhaus

Dig in - here's Paul's state laws on library confidentiality. It hasn't been updated in a couple of years, so he's wikifying it for y'all to add to it.

Privacy audit - one pager by Karen Coyle

Karen Coyle, who has worked on privacy audits and forms in the past, has just issued a one-pager. This is great for those of us who would like to evaluate one or two new library services and privacy, rather than tackle a full library priacy audit.  Look for SINGLE PAGE FORM at her Infopeople site.

Does your library make sure that vendors aren't able to track library users' seaches?

Legally, there are ways by contract.  See ICOLC Privacy Guidelines, California Digital Library, Columbia University Information Sheet for Database Vendors - Authentication/Authorization/Privacy

But legal methods only go so far. They do not anonymize, they merely require confidentiality which can be broken. 

Tech folks - how are you ensuring that users' searches aren't trackable?

Authentication usually happens through the ILS (Integrated Library Service), right? Can readers enlighten me as to their own ILS practices? Once the authentication takes place, the patron is permitted to connect to the database vendor.  Does your library log those authentications in a way that makes it possible to track a particular patron to a particular search?

Outrage: Annotated Constitution updates kept away from the public

This is an outrage. An up-to-date, massive, clearly organized, extremely useful annotated Constitution compiled by the Congressional Research Service is not available to the public. You can view an old version at Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, showing just how tantalizingly useful the current version must be.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a federal agency in the Library of Congress that provides objective non-partisan research and analysis for members and committees of Congress. Their memos and reports are phenomenal. I call them the "CliffsNotes" to current issues -- only much better. They’re written by CRS attorneys, economists, scientists, political scientists and others.  They give a full rundown of an issue in a compact format. Because the reports are authored by federal employees, they are in the public domain. Some memos are confidential – that’s understandable. Members of Congress might ask for a memo analyzing the constitutionality of proposed legislation. After the memo, the bill may be revised, and a Congressperson may not want the early draft made public.

To get nonconfidential memos and reports, however, you must either get it directly from a member of Congress (apparently considered a “perk” for the members to be able to dole them out), purchase it from a private source, or get lucky and find a copy that someone posted online e.g. via opencrs.com. Unless you get it directly, you may end up with an older version; this is frustrating.

But more frustrating still is the outdated Constitution Annotated, officially known as The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation. It would be one thing if money to revise it has dried up – but in fact, it is under a comprehensive source, constantly revised at the CRS internal website. The Constitution Annotated goes through the Constitution, article by article and amendment by amendment, discussing each article and amendment’s history and analyzing, or at least mentioning, and just about every U.S. Supreme Court case that has interpreted it. It is a couple of thousand pages long. You can’t even ask a member of Congress for a copy. You can only buy an outdated version from the Government Printing Office (GPO). A revised edition is published every ten years (the most recent one is dated 2002), with a pocket part issued every two years.

Since taxpayers pay for preparation of the Constitution Annotated, we should be able to get the latest version that is on the CRS website and not have to wait for the biannual pocket part.

Update: Perhaps the Congressional Research Accessibility Act (seen on beSpacific.com) H.R. 2545 sponsored by Rep. Christopher Shays can  be amended to include the Constitution Annotated. I'll send this off to his office.

How to (really) turn off a Palm Treo 700p

Palm customer service folks told me you can only turn off the phone on the Palm Treo 700p - that you couldn't ever turn off the PDA part.  They asked me (in a rhetorical way) why I'd ever want to do this.  Guess they couldn't imagine a desire to save battery life, travel by plane (including takeoff and landing), etc. Anyway, I figured it out on my own. Not exactly intuitive:

Turn Treo Off (all the way - including PDA)

1. Hold down red button until it says goodbye.  Surprise! Treo is still on - but it is now PDA/airplane mode. Note that the wireless symbol in upper right has circle around it now. 

2. THEN quickly press red button and the whole thing turns off.

To turn phone back on

1. Press phone button. Then pick someone to call eg voicemail It asks you if you want the phone on. CLICK yes.

Library lawsuits - court documents available at Justia

More library lawsuit court documents are now at Justia - see  http://news.justia.com/cases/library/
Definitely worth a look!

p.s. Thanks, Cicely Wilson and Nick Moline :>

Podcast with Peter - or Hirtle-ing through Section 108

From Public Knowledge:

Submitted by Alex Curtis on June 4, 2007 - 5:04pm.

From the desk of Brendan Ballou:

Digital preservation, online sharing, website archiving: these are just a few of the issues not addressed in USC Title 17 S. 108, the law governing copyright exceptions in libraries. That’s why the Library of Congress has convened a study group of academics, librarians, and publishers to address the new needs of libraries and authors in a digital environment, and to make recommendations to Congress for change. The Section 108 Study Group has been meeting since 2006 and plans to issue its report sometime this year. In this episode of PK’s In the Know Podcast, I sit down with Peter Hirtle, Intellectual Property Officer at the Cornell University Libraries, and one the members of the study group, to talk about the challenges posed for the study group, and some potential solutions. You can get the interview here|RSS.

Sign up for online digital copyright course - class starts in late August

If you are a library school student at one of the schools below, you can sign up for my online  digital copyright class that runs 8/23/2007 through 12/10/2007.  LIS 564W-OL:  Seminar in Contemporary Issues: Digital Copyright

Syllabus from Fall 2006 here

Long Island University
Rutgers University
San Jose State University
Simmons College
Syracuse University
University of British Columbia
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Maryland
University of North Carolina
University of Pittsburgh
University of Texas at Austin
University of Western Ontario
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Victoria University of Wellington

Home School:  San Jose State University    Class Name:  Seminar in Contemporary Issues: Digital Copyright    Class Number:  LIBR 281    Class Section: 11    Course Tool: Blackboard    Faculty: Mary Minow    Credits:  3 Credit Hours at host school   

Class Description: This course examines digital copyright and gives students a legal and policy framework to evaluate the myriad of copyright scenarios librarians face today. Copyright issues permeate the library's digital environment, from virtual reference to full-text book scanning projects to library Web site design. In order to participate in the active debate about fair use, digital rights management systems, database legislation and the like, librarians need to be well versed in both the newest interpretations and the basics of copyright.