Managing privacy: A survey of practices in digital archives and libraries

Building on past research regarding privacy and digital librarianship, this study surveyed managers of digital libraries across the USA to gauge prevalent attitudes regarding individual privacy versus access to information. In the wake of controversy surrounding the European Union’s 2014 ruling regarding the ‘right to be forgotten’, the authors sought to develop a better understanding of how digital library managers in the USA handle privacy concerns, such as takedown requests, especially in light of the strong protections for first amendment rights in the USA. This research explores whether the majority of archives and digital libraries have developed privacy policies and what they consider to be the key elements of a robust privacy policy. The study also explores the shifting attitudes around privacy and access, both of digital library managers and of their institutions, in an effort to determine how these relate to the handling of such requests. Finally, the research examines how often information professionals receive takedown requests from their communities, with the hope of tracking this trend over time. This paper provides an overview of the current landscape involving privacy policies and takedown requests, and highlights some of the fundamental issues facing information professionals so that they may have the necessary resources to develop and implement privacy policies at their institutions

Honoring Access and Privacy in Digital Collections

This session explores the often unforeseen challenges and issues that can arise with the creation and management of digital collections in regards to access and privacy. We will address incorporating a privacy review into production workflows that can embed privacy considerations into practice and offer possible solutions and creative ways in which two academic institutions have helped it’s students, faculty and researchers maintain their privacy. We will share examples of subpoenas, plagiarized content, take-down notices, awkward responses from contacted alumni, and the challenge of dealing with victims of violence. This session will share some lessons learned along with recommendations of addressing privacy before publication and dissemination. Our hope is to engender a discussion and provide a framework of best practices based on examples and discussion from the presenters and attendees, and also provide some resources to consult

Developing a Data Management Consultation Service for Faculty Researchers: a Case Study from a Large Midwestern Public University

To inform the development of data management services, a library research team at Kent State University conducted a survey of all tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure track faculty about their data management practices and perceptions. The methodology and results will be presented in the article, as well as how this information was used to inform future work in the library’s internal working group. Recommendations will be presented that other academic libraries could model in order to develop similar services at their institutions. Personal anecdotes are included that help ascertain current practices and sentiments around research data from the perspective of the researcher. The article addresses the particular needs of a large Midwestern U.S. academic campus, which are not currently reflected in literature on the topic

Southern GEMS Groups I: Dynamical Properties

Here we present an investigation of the properties of 16 nearby galaxy groups and their constituent galaxies. The groups are selected from the Group Evolution Multi-wavelength Study (GEMS) and all have X-ray as well as wide-field neutral hydrogen (HI) observations. Group membership is determined using a friends-of-friends algorithm on the positions and velocities from the 6-degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS) and NASA/IPAC Extra-galactic Database (NED). For each group we derive their physical properties using this membership, including: velocity dispersions (sigma_v), virial masses (M_V), total K-band luminosities (L_K(Tot)) and early-type fractions (f_early) and present these data for the individual groups. We find that the GEMS X-ray luminosity is proportional to the group velocity dispersions and virial masses: L_X(r_500)\propto\sigma_v^{3.11\pm0.59} and L_X(r_500)\propto M_V^{1.13\pm0.27}, consistent with the predictions of self-similarity between group and clusters. We also find that M_V\propto L_K(Tot)^{2.0\pm0.9}, i.e. mass grows faster than light and that the fraction of early-type galaxies in the groups is correlated with the group X-ray luminosities and velocity dispersions. We examine the brightest group galaxies (BGGs), finding that, while the luminosity of the BGG correlates with its total group luminosity, the fraction of group luminosity contained in the BGG decreases with increasing total group luminosity. This suggests that BGGs grow by mergers at early times in group evolution while the group continues to grow by accreting infalling galaxies. (Abridged)Comment: 30 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS, Table 3 available at http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~sbrough/landscape_table3.p