Several months ago, I noticed that the Sulzer Regional Library and several other Chicago Public Library branches had changed how they made books that had been placed on hold available for patrons to pick up. It used to be that holds were kept behind the desk, and patrons had to stand in line to request them. Under the new system, the hold books are kept out in the main lobby space, which is accessible to anyone who comes into the library.
As a user, I have to say the new system is much more convenient. At Sulzer, there seemed to be several storage locations for hold books in different parts of the library under the old system, and I would often have to wait while the librarian went off in search of the elusive book. It’s definitely a lot easier and faster to be able to just walk in, get my hold books, and get in line to check them out.
However, as I was a library school student at the time when I first noticed the change, I had had the American Library Association’s policies about privacy of patron records drilled into my head, and I started to wonder if the new hold system violated these policies. Each hold book now has a slip of paper with the full name of the patron, and the book’s cover, title, and author are not obscured in any way. This seemed contrary to the statement on the ALA’s Privacy and Confidentiality page that, “Confidentiality of library records is a core value of librarianship.” It was unclear to me how library records could remain private if hold books were kept in a public area and marked with patron names.
I contacted the Chicago Public Library system and the American Library Association to get both perspectives on the privacy and confidentiality issues related to the public hold system. Ruth Lednicer, director of marketing for the CPL, was the first to respond. She noted that the new system was selected to improve efficiency for patrons and free up library staff to spend more time on reference help, checking out materials and assisting patrons. She also said that the system is very popular with patrons, and has helped boost the number of holds placed to 100,000 per month.
Regarding the privacy concerns, Lednicer emphasized the need to balance patron confidentiality and the demand for quick access to library materials. She said the CPL conducted a survey of library systems across the U.S. for how they handled public hold systems and ended up developing a policy to shelve hold items with the spine facing down to obscure the title. She noted that while other libraries across the U.S. wrap self-pickup items in paper, the CPL thinks its system is more environmentally friendly and less time-consuming.
I also contacted Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association. She said that the ALA generally discourages hold systems that allow the public to associate a particular user with a particular book, as these can lead to violations of privacy. She discussed several alternative systems that avoid these violations, such as the aforementioned covering books in paper or large envelopes, as well as labeling holds with initials or a pseudonym instead the patron’s full name. Caldwell-Stone also sent me links to several relevant ALA policies and other blog posts; I’ll provide these below, but I want to highlight part of the Illinois library confidentiality statute, which applies to all public libraries in the state:
“The registration and circulation records of a library are confidential information. Except pursuant to a court order, no person shall publish or make any information contained in such records available to the public.”
Caldwell-Stone noted that ALA policies are not binding on any libraries, they are just recommendations for best practices. However, the Chicago Public Library’s Confidentiality of Patron and Circulation Records page indicates that patron and circulation records are “strictly confidential and not subject to disclosure to the public or to any law enforcement officers except by court warrant.”
I’m going to avoid giving too much of my own opinion here because I would really like to encourage some discussion on the matter, but as I see it, the question comes down to whether the CPL is doing enough to balance privacy against convenience. Does placing books spine-down (but where they can still be picked up and examined by anyone in the library) and labeling them with patrons’ full names do enough to keep library records confidential? Is it a violation of ALA policy and/or the CPL’s own Confidentiality of Patron and Circulation Records policy? As a patron, would you consider this enough of a violation of your privacy that you would rather have a more inconvenient, time-consuming method to pick up your hold books?
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
ALA: Policy on Confidentiality of Library Records
ALA: Policy Concerning Confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information About Library Users
