[Koha] Re: user comments

[carla]

Hi all,


I'm fairly new to the list and this is a question I can answer! :)  I'm 
a librarian in a public library in the United States (I'm trying to talk 
them into using Koha).  The reason the library I work at does not keep a 
reading history is because of the history libraries have had with law 
enforcement here.  If we kept records then law enforcement could demand 
them and our policy here is not to give out *any* information on what a 
person reads or does in the library.  Since the terror attacks, some 
libraries have been asked for reading histories on suspected terrorists 
and as far as I've heard no library questioned has kept them.  It really 
has nothing to do with librarians looking at what patrons are reading. 
We do have voluntary reading histories on homebound patrons, so that we 
don't take them books they've already read, but they agreed to allow that.

Hope this helps!

Carla
Otis Library, Norwich, CT


> Im not sure I understand, you dont think the librarians should be able to
> pull up a reading history on a borrower?
> 
> I agree you shouldnt make this information available to the other borrowers.
> But surely if the information is all in the database the librarians should
> be allowed to see it? 
> 
> The reading record is just a list of all the itmes a borrower has borrowed.
> And can be fetched in multiple ways. 
> 
> Do you think there would be situations in which you'd want to hide a members
> borrowing history from a librarian? In which case you'd probably want to
> hide a lot of other information as well. Is this what you were thinking?
> 
> Chris
>