"Digital Age Creates Challenges for Public Libraries in Providing Patron Privacy"
The American Library Association's Bill of Rights explicitly addresses library patrons' right to privacy while using library facilities, which librarians have long held sacred. However, the digital age has challenged libraries' efforts to secure and defend privacy, according to Masooda Bashir, an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Public libraries are essential, especially for people in lower socio-economic and underrepresented groups. They visit libraries to complete job applications, school assignments, and other day-to-day things, so libraries handle a great deal of sensitive and important information. Bashir and her research team collected data from over 800 different public libraries throughout the US for the first study to discover how public libraries protect such information. They surveyed library administrators, librarians, Information Technology (IT) professionals, and more who work in libraries. The project, which ran from September 2020 to February 2023, was supported by a $150,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Although all survey respondents recognized the need for privacy protection, the approaches to address that need differed greatly. According to survey responses, most public libraries recognized technical expertise as their main area of weakness. In addition, respondents noted that, while privacy safeguards were adopted in the libraries' daily operations, they were concerned about a lack of control in the digital realm. This article continues to discuss the study on how public libraries protect information and future research to enhance their patron privacy protections.