e-mail policy -

[John Creech]

On Thu, 2 Apr 1998, Paul H. Gray wrote:

> >This is only possible if you are willing to spy on what your patrons are
> >reading on the screen. . . .
> >Is this level of supervision of your patrons acceptable?
> >Would you look over their shoulders at what they were reading or writing
> >away from an Internet workstation?

I realize that most of us as librarians are ... concerned ... with patron
privacy issues, and I deeply respect that.  I don't want to play internet
cop any more than any other librarian.

 However, I think there is another level to consider, though I may be
wrong.  The pc's in the public areas of state-supported university
libraries are public, state property. I'm relatively certain that
appropriate state personnel of the state in which I work can indeed come
into my office and look on my pc, can come onto my campus and look at our
computer center's log files to see what *anyone* using a state-owned pc is
doing re: the Net. 

Before someone calls for my head, yes, I know about the Library Bill of
Rights, privacy issues...yes, I support the 1st Amendment.  But to say a
librarian is "spying," to me, is strong language.  We can talk about
ethics till the sun comes up, but some of this discussion is framed by
case law and state laws and regs.  Many of these cyberspace (ughh--what a
word) issues have yet to be determined by case law, too, I realize. 

As to the comment above, about looking over a patron's shoulder when
reading or writing, and not at a pc - again, they bought the book, they
bought the notebook to write in - that's private, not state, property. 

John Creech
Head of Reference Services, Central Washington University Library 
400 E. 8th Ave. | Ellensburg, WA 98926 | 509-963-1081
creechj at www.lib.cwu.edu
personal mail=jcreech at ellensburg.com
personal pages=larry.ellensburg.com/~jcreech