On sacred cows and patron privacy

Andrew Pace takes on the Sacred Cow of patron privacy by suggesting that we allow patrons to control their own privacy settings (like Facebook, for example).

I love the idea of being able to use patron data to offer recommendations. I would also love to see us integrate our circulation data with data from our course management system:

People who checked out this book also checked out these books

This book is popular with faculty/students in these departments

This book is on the reading list for these classes

I know we have to be concerned about patron privacy, but Pace’s observations here are right on point:

I attended a lecture on privacy at NCSU once where the speaker mentioned that we are living in a climate where most undergraduates would trade a DNA sample for an Extra Value Meal. A nice throw-away line, but one that sets up a value proposition for libraries. We could certainly ask for less than DNA and offer more than a Big Mac and fries.

A nice discussion of the challenges is at blog.ecorrado.us.