Privacy and Security for Library Systems

Libraries have a long tradition of taking extraordinary measures to ensure the privacy of those who use their facilities and access their materials. And since most libraries offer considerable content and services through the web, the extent to which a patron’s use of these services might be vulnerable to exposure stands out as a topic of critical interest. Having surveyed vendors, large public libraries, and Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions, Breeding covers the current state of patron privacy in interacting with the library’s web-based systems. He discusses such important topics as:

• key technologies and techniques for protecting patron privacy, focusing on encryption, the storage of data, the catalog, and discovery systems;
• the many ways patron data and behavior may be captured in the absence of preventive measures; and
• data from library implementations, including methodology, observations, and related projects and resources

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