[Web4lib] Self-pickup of holds

Thu Sep 22 16:10:37 EDT 2005

Another low-tech option is to place items on the shelf spine-down with a paper hanging out of the bottom of the book with the patron's name. To secure privacy, place the shelves where they can be monitored (close to a circulation desk, for example), if someone is obviously snooping the shelves, staff can intervene.

One idea I heard a library propose using.

Bret Parker
Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library
605 N. El Dorado St
Stockton, CA 95202

Have you used your electronic library subscription today?
  Pick a topic and read!   http://www.stockton.lib.ca.us/electronic/

>>> Clinton Lowery <clintonhlowery at yahoo.com> 9/22/2005 5:49 AM >>>
According to the ALA Privacy Toolkit, is is advised
against using customer names for such a service.

But my question is not in making an alias, my question
dealt with how to prevent other
patrons/users/customers/visitors/etc.etc. from seeing
'Oh, John Smith has Angel of Darkness with his name on
it.'

At JPL we are wrapping items with normal 8 1/2 x 11
translucent paper, but I remember some libaries using
brown butcher paper or other products.  I just can't
remember offhand how many or who.

(Sorry for cross-posting, it was brought up that this
was discussed on PUBLIB at some point in the past and
I wanted to see if someone on that list could remember
as well.)

Thanks,

Clinton Lowery, MLIS
Integrated Library Systems
Jacksonville Public Library (FL)

--- e roel <e.roel at usa.net> wrote:

> I apologize, but I do not subscribe to PubLib, and
> don't recall seeing this on
> Web4Lib.  So, please forgive me if these comments
> were already offered, etc.
> 
> I don't perceive this as an issue of paranoia, nor
> do I necessarily think that
> there is someone necessarily monitoring the borrowed
> item at that particularly
> library.  However, I still would not view this as
> something 'unbroken'. 
> Libraries have a reasonable history of protecting
> privacy.  Privacy is a
> patron right defended on principle by a substantial
> number of librarians. 
> Society-wide, it is a very delicate right, one that
> is much harder to [re]gain
> post facto to an emergent tradition of its
> violation.  It behooves us as
> citizens to try and allocate private spaces (be them
> physical or intellectual)
> based on a belief that the individual should have a
> right to such spaces
> before we simply don't have any anymore.  If we only
> allocate privacy only
> when we deem it to be necessary based on the
> idiosyncratic circumstances of
> the individual, paradoxically, that investigation
> and judgment process would
> most likely already involve a violation of the right
> to privacy.  After all,
> as it was written and defined, it is the 'right to
> be let alone'
> (Brandeis/Warren, 1890). 
> 
> If an individual wants to read something that they
> may view as being an item
> to which others would be hostile, the would probably
> notice that the borrowing
> system you describe exists, and would probably go
> somewhere else.  I imagine
> they would probably not wish to further expose
> themselves to a greater number
> of people if say, they were heard complaining, etc.
> Of course, that is
> assuming that there is somewhere else to go.
> 
> I also view librarians as a group with as service
> professionals.  Given this,
> I strongly believe that we should provide services
> even to the non-vocal few,
> even a group we are only speculating about. This is
> particularly true when
> introducing a change into the environment does not
> assert itself in any
> apparent way against the rights of others.
> 
> As citizens in our society, with a strong tradition
> in the liberal
> philosophical vein, we have to protect the rights or
> privileges of those that
> may not even voice a given concern.  It much easier
> to 'hold the line' on a
> right (one, in this case that has emerged from the
> precedent in our national
> laws) than try and re-coup ground after it has been
> violated.  Often, this is
> already a mark of the point of no return.
> 
> I want to live in a society that provides for
> privacy mental and physical
> spaces.  If an administrative change in policy in a
> local library can
> contribute to that even in the smallest way, I fully
> support that.
> 
> Eulalia
> 
> 
> 
> ------ Original Message ------
> Received: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 05:31:46 PM EDT
> From: Sue Kamm <suekamm at mindspring.com>
> To: Clinton Lowery <clintonhlowery at yahoo.com>,
> web4lib at webjunction.orgCc: 
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Self-pickup of holds
> 
> > I think this has been discussed on PUBLIB, as well
> as WEB4LIB.  
> > 
> > The Los Angeles Public Library branch I use most
> often shelves the books,
> foredges down, and uses a bookmark that shows the
> borrower's name and the last
> day they may pick up the book.  
> > 
> > While there are times and places where paranoia
> may rule, I see no privacy
> issue here.  Are your borrowers complaining about
> lack of privacy?  If there's
> a groundswell of opinion about this, then return to
> a system where the
> borrower picks up his/her materials from a staff
> person at your circ desk.  
> > 
> > Otherwise, if it ain't broke....
> > 
> > Your friendly CyberGoddess and Councilor-at-large,
> > Sue Kamm
> > Inglewood/Los Angeles, CA
> > Truest of the Blue, Los Angeles Dodgers Think Blue
> Week 2000
> > Visit my home page:  
> > http://suekamm.home.mindspring.com/index.htm 
> > email:  suekamm [at] mindspring.com
> > "What I wonder is, where are all the guys who just
> like to play baseball?"
> > --Wes Parker, former Los Angeles Dodgers infielder
> > _______________________________________________
> > Web4lib mailing list
> > Web4lib at webjunction.org 
> > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/ 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib at webjunction.org 
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/ 
> 

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