Local librarians erase Internet, book histories
In a post-9/11 world, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can
obtain library records that are relevant to an investigation. But
in San Benito County, what library cardholders check out and look
at on the Internet is protected.
Local librarians erase Internet, book histories
In a post-9/11 world, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can obtain library records that are relevant to an investigation. But in San Benito County, what library cardholders check out and look at on the Internet is protected.
“We don’t keep historical records,” said Nora Conte, the San Benito County librarian.
To her knowledge, law enforcement has never tried to obtain a patron’s records in San Benito County.
Even with a court order, law enforcement officials could only obtain a record of the books a patron currently has checked out, Conte said. Once a book is returned the record of it having been checked out is eliminated from the computer.
Conte has been the county librarian for the past year. What someone chooses to read should be private, she said.
“The library profession, and this library, has an appreciation of privacy,” Conte said. “When I came here that was the policy, and I continued to support that.”
There are about 25,000 library cardholders in San Benito County, said Betty Mason, the adult reference librarian.
People do ask about the privacy of their records, she said.
“We have some very concerned customers, and we don’t blame them,” she said. “We assure them that their records are safe.”
The public computers do not maintain a user history.
“On the Internet, we tell them that nothing is saved on the hard drive,” Mason said.
The only record that the public computers keep is how many people use them each day.
“All we do is count the statistics, and then we discard it,” Conte said, “Because we don’t need it.”
Conte would like to develop a clear policy about privacy that the board of supervisors can approve.
Book and computer records are also private in Santa Clara County.
“Most libraries that use automated systems work that way,” said Melinda Cervantes, a Santa Clara County librarian. “There’s no good reason for us to retain records. We’re not in the law enforcement business. We’re in the information business.”
At the Carl Martin Luck Library in San Juan Bautista, the situation is a little different.
The computer system saves circulation records for two years, said Jan McClintock, San Juan city manager.
“It’s a policy that we’re working on updating right now,” McClintock said.
Her goal is for the computer to save the record for no more than one week.
“I think it’s important,” McClintock said, “but not as important as some other things we’re working on fixing now.
The library at San Benito High School will have a new computer system running by January, said Doug Achterman, the school librarian.
Unlike their current system, the new program will save individual user records, he said.
“Now that we will have that ability, we need to create a [privacy] policy,” Achterman said.
It is unlikely that anyone would want to view a student’s records, he said. Unlike public libraries, school libraries have restrictions on content, he said.
Library records should be private, Achterman said.
“School and public libraries are one of the cornerstones of democracy,” he said, referring to freedom of information “The library systems take that responsibility on and take it seriously.”
