Librarians Express Concern Over Google Books

angry tapir writes "Many libraries routinely delete borrower information, and organizations such as the American Library Association have fought hard to preserve the privacy of their patrons in the face of laws such as the US Patriot Act. But now, as more and more titles become available in Google Book Search, it's not clear whether digital readers will enjoy the same privacy protections they have at the library."

Comments

Re:Question

[Moby Cock]

Well, yes, that is an option. The point of the article is that people may have an expectation of privacy where none actually exists. This misunderstanding could be the source of problems down stream.

Many libraries routinely delete information

[will_die]

I have worked in a few libraries, public and private, both as paid or volunteer help, and don't know of any that deleted user information or information on who checked out books.
They may of archived the information and removed it from the main databases but the information was still available for years after the event.
The most a library really needs to record are who are the last 2 people who checked out material, after that you there is no way of proving someone else damaged it. If you want metrics on the types or specific information on the number of check-outs that can be done without attaching a specific user to a piece of material.
Few places have a legal requirement that libraries store user information and if they did not store if beyond what is needed to track who has something checked out or could of damaged material they would not have problems in proving this information since it would not exist.