Mellon Grant Awarded to NISO to Explore Patron Privacy in Library and Publisher Systems

[NISO]

The National Information Standards Organization has been awarded a grant
from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop a Consensus Framework to
Support Patron Privacy in Digital Library and Information Systems. The grant
will support a series of community discussions on how libraries, publishers,
and information systems providers can build better privacy protection into
their operations. The grant will also support creation of a draft framework
to support patron privacy and subsequent publicity of the draft prior to its
advancement for approval as a NISO Recommended Practice. 

"Awareness and interest in online privacy is growing rapidly following a
number of significant data breaches that have occurred over the past year,"
explains Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. "Libraries have long been
stalwart advocates for protection of patron privacy, but as the complexity
of libraries' digital services has grown, the challenges of protecting that
privacy have multiplied. Patron activity data is no longer held exclusively
by the library, nor is it necessarily controlled by providers themselves.
Compounding these problems is the tension created by the fact that real
benefit can be achieved through the application of usage data as a tool for
improving library services. How does one balance the opportunity to improve
services or build new functionality that might improve patrons' experiences
against the need to protect privacy?"

"This delicate balance is one that NISO hopes to address through a process
of engaging community consensus to develop a framework for addressing patron
privacy in digital library systems," states Nettie Lagace, NISO Associate
Director for Programs. "By bringing together thought leaders and engaged
members of the publishing, library, and systems vendor communities, this
project will provide a forum for perspectives to be shared and benefits and
drawbacks of various approaches to be discussed from multiple angles.
Involvement of the publishers and vendors is particularly important as they
have been less engaged in privacy discussions and their implications."

This project will consist of three phases. The first will be a pre-meeting
discussion phase, which will consist of four virtual forums to discuss
privacy of internal library systems, privacy of publisher systems, privacy
of provider systems, and legal aspects influencing data sharing and
policies. Each of the discussion sessions will be a three-hour web-based
session designed to lay the groundwork for a productive in-person meeting at
the conclusion of the American Library Association meeting in San Francisco,
CA in June 2015. Following the in-person meeting, a Framework document will
be completed detailing the privacy principles and recommendations agreed to
by the participants, and then circulated for public comment and
finalization. 

More information, including a version of the project proposal, is available
on the NISO website at: www.niso.org/topics/tl/patron_privacy/

Contact:

Nettie Lagace
NISO Associate Director for Programs
301-654-2512
nlagace at niso.org


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2015-03-11
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