So Glad You're Here. We're Here To Help.

This Vendor Data Sharing Practices Guide is meant to be a resource for community college librarians who want to learn more about how their patrons’ data is being collected and shared. We provide digestible summaries of important studies as well as updates on new developments within the realm of patron privacy. We also provide a summarized version of the privacy policies from some of the most common databases used at community college libraries. We also share some discussion questions that librarians can use in their classes with students to get them thinking deeply about how their information is being shared and how these sharing practices might impact students differently. We encourage visitors to comment on our posts and share their experiences and ideas with this topic. 

​

We hope that this guide allows community college librarians to become more informed on how the databases they use are respecting (or not respecting) student privacy. We also hope that this guide empowers librarians to educate their students and contribute to changing privacy policies. While all students should be informed of how their information is being shared, patron privacy is an issue that affects BIPOC students differently. Therefore, we believe patron privacy is a social justice issue and our goal is to ensure the safety of all our students.

​

This guide was created by three MLIS students for an Academic Librarianship course at the University of Washington:

 

Hayley Major

Emily Terada

Erin Andreassi