Although "lending records" are "protected" it isn't clear how well they
are. Libraries, especially those with minimal or no technical staff, are
probably not the most diligent in systems security. When I was doing
privacy audits on US public libraries I found that many kept the most
recent circulation record (even after the item had been checked in)
until the next circulation - which could be indefinitely. The reasoning
was that if they found a problem with the item (damage, for example)
they would be able to find and charge the last patron to have the book
out. This means that nearly every book in the library has an actual
patron record associated with it at all times, which is an obvious
security risk since library systems may not themselves be secure. (I
wasn't able to determine if the records are kept "in the clear" but I
would not be surprised if they were.)

Remember that "protected" is a relative status, not absolute, and that
legal protection \= hacker proof.

kc

On 4/16/19 5:45 PM, Alex Stinson wrote:
> Jane: do you mean circulation numbers? Lending records are typically
> protected and an important part of at least American librarianship has
> been the protection of intellectual freedom by refusing to share that
> information at all costs (and its held up in American courts). 
>
> Cheers, 
>
> Alex
>
> On Tue, Apr 16, 2019 at 11:30 AM Federico Leva (Nemo)
> <nemowiki@gmail.com <mailto:nemowiki@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Jane Darnell, 16/04/19 18:26:
>     > access lending data for libraries in any locale. So it may be
>     useful if
>     > we could have some property on Wikidata indicating whether or not the
>     > library keeps lending records, and if so, how far back they go.
>
>     Do you mean data retention policies for lending records? What detailed
>     information is recorded about each lending, what aggregation or purging
>     happens and when?
>
>     Federico
>
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>
> --
> Alex Stinson 
> Senior Program Strategist
> Wikimedia Foundation
> Twitter:@glamwiki/@sadads
>
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--
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
skype: kcoylenet

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