home

In the back left to right: Isu Jiesu, Peggy Pogloff, and Leah Szabo In the front left to right: Jody "I want a job in Australia please" Wilson and Lisa Domeier de Suarez =Welcome to the Collaboration Wiki of LIBE 477!=

Reflections on the article "Students' Privacy Rights in School Libraries: Balancing Principles, Ethics and Practices" by Donna Riehl The article can be found at: http://www.clatoolbox.ca/casl/slic/262studentsprivacyrights.html [|Article in pdf format]
 * Summary:**

In this article, Riehl examines the issues surrounding student privacy in school libraries. This article raises more questions than solutions however spurs on discussion about the the philosophical, legal, ethical and societal reasons why Teacher Librarians should be concerned about the privacy rights of their students. Why is it significant that we protect the privacy of our students? On a philosophical level, Riehl believes we should protect the privacy of our students for three specific reasons. Firstly, students will be more confident selecting materials that might elicit negative attention from their peers. Secondly, after experiencing this, they will be more sensitive to the privacy rights of others. Thirdly, they will gain a heightened awareness of the connection between freedoms and social responsibilities. Legally, there is no consistent standard for Teacher Librarians or other librarians to follow in regards to student privacy rights. There are various policies but no practical application of those that would provide a consistent standard whereby school library programs could follow. There is Canadian legislation, on provincial levels, that protects the library records of adults without regard to the records of children. However legislation that is directed at schools is yet to be developed. Riehl suggests that individuals need to create their own guidelines and practices that will help to protect the rights of student users. Consideration needs to be given to policies, practices and procedures, advocacy and training, technology and balancing intellectual freedom with social responsibilities. The article provides discussion points around these topics. We have taken some of these points and explored them through Web 2.0 applications. **Process:** As a group, we communicated through email and in discussions in class initially before creating our wikispace. Each member of the group contributed their work and participated in wiki discussions about the various topics. This is the first time that we are creating a wiki and we are sold on the technology! We can see the applications in our schools especially for teacher librarians. In the future, we will create wikis to collaborate on units with teachers and on information literacy units with other teacher librarians. Please the navigation bar on the sidebar to explore our discussion pieces.