Conference Paper: “How Library IT Staff Navigate Privacy and Security Challenges and Responsibilities”

The paper linked below is being presented this week at the 32nd USENIX Security Symposium in Anaheim, California.

Title

How Library IT Staff Navigate Privacy and Security Challenges and Responsibilities

Authors

Alan F. Luo, Noel Warford, and Samuel Dooley
University of Maryland

Rachel Greenstadt
New York University

Michelle L. Mazurek
University of Maryland

Nora McDonald
George Mason University

Source

Proceedings of the 32nd USENIX Security Symposium

Abstract

 Libraries provide critical IT services to patrons who lack access to computational and internet resources. We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with library IT staff to learn about their privacy and security protocols and policies, the challenges they face implementing them, and how this relates to their patrons. We frame our findings using Sen’s capabilities approach and find that library IT staff are primarily concerned with protecting their patrons’ privacy from threats outside their walls—police, government authorities, and third parties. Despite their dedication to patron privacy, library IT staff frequently have to grapple with complex tradeoffs between providing easy, fluid, full-featured access to Internet technologies or third-party resources, protecting library infrastructure, and ensuring patron privacy.

Direct to Full Text Paper
19 pages; PDF.

Filed under: Conference Presentations, Interviews, Journal Articles, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users