Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
A Failure To Communicate: Assessing The Low Rate Of Materials Challenge And Censorship Reporting Among Canadian Public Libraries, Mike Nyby, Heather Hill, Richard Ellis
A Failure To Communicate: Assessing The Low Rate Of Materials Challenge And Censorship Reporting Among Canadian Public Libraries, Mike Nyby, Heather Hill, Richard Ellis
FIMS Publications
Record levels of materials challenges have affected libraries in both Canada and the United States in recent years, (American Library Association, 2023c; Canadian Federation of Library Associations, 2015-2022), but despite the apparent swell in censorship efforts, the ALA estimates that 82-92% of challenges go unreported (Doyle 2017). This study aims to identify factors contributing to the low rate of challenge reporting through a participation survey distributed to over 500 Canadian public libraries. Results indicate low awareness reporting mechanisms is likely the largest obstacle to greater participation, but obstacles related to library policy, including delegation and challenge policy structure, also exist.
All In For Privacy: Cultivating A Community Of Information Privacy Awareness, Lindsay Taylor, Marni R. Harrington, Matt Ward
All In For Privacy: Cultivating A Community Of Information Privacy Awareness, Lindsay Taylor, Marni R. Harrington, Matt Ward
FIMS Presentations
The Library Freedom Project supports librarianship’s values of freedom of information and privacy by providing relevant tools and education to LIS professionals. A group from the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western aligned with the project to encourage student participation in local and global privacy issues. Our programming encourages hands-on use of open source and anti-surveillance software, such as Tor Browser for anonymous web browsing. In addition, we detail how we configured our Tor relay to route anonymous encrypted global traffic, so that other libraries can join the 280 relays currently running in Canada and 7000 worldwide.
Hidden Online Surveillance: What Librarians Should Know To Protect Their Privacy And That Of Their Patrons, Alexandre Fortier, Jacquelyn Burkell
Hidden Online Surveillance: What Librarians Should Know To Protect Their Privacy And That Of Their Patrons, Alexandre Fortier, Jacquelyn Burkell
FIMS Publications
Librarians have a professional responsibility to protect the right to access information free from surveillance. This right is at risk from a new and increasing threat: the collection and use of non-personally identifying information such as IP addresses through online behavioral tracking. This paper provides an overview of behavioral tracking, identifying the risks and benefits, describes the mechanisms used to track this information, and offers strategies that can be used to identify and limit behavioral tracking. We argue that this knowledge is critical for librarians in two interconnected ways. First, librarians should be evaluating recommended websites with respect to behavioral …