Vast Active Library and Information Science blog. From a recent library science graduate in Wellington, New Zealand. A focus on reference and current awareness tools and issues, especially free, web-based resources.

 
An article on LISNews.com points out the privacy implications of LibraryELF.

I have to admit I hadn't really thought about privacy when I was praising this service a few weeks ago. I'd also made the assumption that if LibraryELF was available for a library, it was endorsed by that library. The LISNews post suggests that this is not the case.

I'm not tooooo worried about giving away my details. In practice, what have I given up? Some company in Canada knows my library card number and a password? What are they going to do with it? Nothing worrying that I can see. OK, they can see the books I read - I guess that could open me up to some kind of targeted spam, or they could theoretically pass the details of what I was reading to the government - not that my government would really care.

All of this does raise the question of how LibraryELF makes money...I'd assumed it was through a deal with the libraries, but obviously not. Advertising? Not much of that on their site, that I can see.

Hopefully, this is a non-issue. It doesn't appear to be a major one.

| posted by Simon at 1:18 pm