This content reflects work done as part of the Indigenous Perspectives in School Librarianship (IPSL) grant funded by IMLS (RE-246303-OLS-20). Actual assignments may vary.

Module Objectives

  • Develop strategies for minimizing the collection and sharing of personal identifiable information in the school library.
  • Locate and evaluate your school’s privacy policies and actions.

Think

  • American Library Association. (2021). Privacy and Confidentiality. In M. Garnar (ed.), Intellectual freedom manual (10th edition, pp. 193-224). Chicago, IL: ALA Editions.
  • American Library Association. (2016). Library privacy guidelines for students in K-12 schools. Retrieved from https://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/guidelines/students
  • Rinio, D. (2023). Values based conversation flow examples.

Create

Conduct an informal needs assessment in your school to determine which ethical areas (privacy & confidentiality, copyright, censorship and book challenges, or access and filtering) have the greatest professional development need in your school. You may approach this whatever way works best for your community. Consider asking educators what their comfort level is in each of the areas, and to describe what they already known and what they would like to know in each of the areas. You will use this data to help inform your assignment in Module 7.

Use the Values Based Conversation Flow Examples as a template to create your own talking points / script around the issue of privacy and confidentiality. At the top of your talking points / script, identify your audience and answer the following questions:

  • What does your audience already know about your library?
  • What values does your audience hold that mesh with the library’s ethical principles and goals?

Share

Part I: In the #module5 channel, address the following and respond to at least two of your classmates:

  • Evaluate your library’s privacy practices using the “Library Privacy Checklist for Students in K-12 Schools”. If you are not currently the librarian, this may involve working with the current librarian to gather this data. Reflect on your findings. Describe your school library’s areas of strength and areas of weakness in the realm of privacy.
  • What are three actions you could take as a school librarian to improve privacy and confidentiality in your library? Explain your reasoning.

Part II: Select one of the following scenarios in the #privacy channel in Slack and contribute to the conversation thread for that scenario. Describe how you would respond to the scenario and how you might negotiate the different attitudes and values that members of your community hold around privacy?

  • The principal comes to the library with a police officer. He officer has a book in their hand and says they need to know who last checked out this book. No one offers to show you a court order.
  • A teacher asks for the overdue notices for their class. They want to know who has what books out so they can search the classroom and talk to parents when they come the next school family night.
  • A teacher wants to check out a specific resource, but it’s being used by another teacher. The teacher asks who has the resource, perhaps they can encourage that person to return it early.

Grow

Write a reflection on the module. Use the following questions as inspiration. What did you learn this week? What made you wonder? How do you feel about the module’s content and process? How will what you learned this week make you a better librarian? How do you feel about your progress in the course? What questions do you have?