Michael Khoo, Department of Communication, 270 UCB
University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309-0270
michael.khoo@colorado.edu
The development of electronic computer and communication technologies has radically impacted library practice. Until recently, library holdings such as books, journals, newspapers, magazines, audio- and video-cassettes, and compact disks have traditionally been used by one person at a time. When made available in digital forms, however, these holdings can be accessible to multiple subscribers, in multiple places, at multiple times.
This emerging “library without walls” is often described as existing in a space free from the spatial and temporal constraints of bricks and mortar, a space in which patrons (provided they have computers and modems) can search catalogs and access electronic files without having physically to walk through a library’s doors. While offering advantages, these “libraries without walls” also raise a number of issues regarding the relationship between libraries and their patrons. This paper examines one of these issues, the implications for established norms of library patron privacy. In examining this issue, I will make the argument that new digital content technologies are throwing into question taken-for-granted definitions of privacy and that, unlike legal definitions of privacy that apply to people or property, the notion of what privacy means in relation to the provision of online content remains contested. The discussion will be structured around a case study, a review of the experience of the author with netLibrary, a digital content provider for the University of Colorado.
Khoo, M. (2002). Privacy in the “library without walls” : library practice in an age of digital content. Library and Information Science Research E-Journal, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.32655/LIBRES.2002.1.3