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Thank you Caitlin for your response. I really enjoyed reading your observations regarding intentions of commercial entities. This is something I find fascinating as these companies rely heavily on personal information to target their products and services. Like I was saying to Stacey, I think users should always be given the option to opt-out of any service that gathers personal data even if it’s only data on their lending. It is also interesting to read how some users do not mind handing over personal data to business in exchange for an improved user experience with their service.
Thank you for your insight into RA services that don’t necessary need to collect personal data and the different methods libraries can used to help patrons choose their next book. For smaller businesses there is no need to implement big data collection though some larger libraries or libraries that share a lot of resources may be able to benefit outside of RA. I really like your idea of creating a small connected community online through services like Twitter which is something that patrons who might not have easy access to their local library would really benefit from.
Thank you for your response Stacey. Even though I can see how services can be improved by the collection of data, I personally don’t like handing it over to businesses because I do not think businesses are taking enough precautions to look after it. One prime example being Target and the data breach that occurred back in 2013. I found the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner rather informative when trying to understand the ways businesses manage personal data. Unfortunately, in Australia it is only mandatory for businesses that handle Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) to notify the public of data breaches.
Your question regarding library patrons being cranky if their library was offering their data up to a 3rd party through the access to one of their services, I think that there will always be users who are cranky with 3rd party gaining access to their data. This is why a library would need to be transparent when offering a service that was linked with a 3rd party. I think users should always be given the option to opt-out of a service like this and that patrons should feel they have control over what a library does with the data they are collecting on them. I still think that patron would have a lot to gain from allowing a 3rd party to offer a recommendation service if they were to give up some data relating to their lending habits so they can help predict users needs and identify new business opportunities.
Thank you for the great post Tracey. I’ve never been a fan of Subject Guides as they are usually outdated and if they are updated they are done so by only a handful of people. I definitely agree that it would be beneficial to treat them like a Wiki or another form of collaborative space. Curation is definitely a concern as you would like them to be updated with relevant information from credible sources.
