Privacy, Porn, and Public Access in 2004

From funding and library education to intellectual freedom and copyright, the library world faces a host of challenges as 2004 dawns. Librarians have gained new public support and a much higher profile as they grapple with these issues. Their opposition to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act provoked the wrath of Attorney General John Ashcroft and his conservative predecessor, Ed Meese, along with a publicity bonanza the best publicists in the land couldn't have mustered.

Provisions in the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), focus of a high-profile legal battle by the American Library Association (ALA), will force public libraries that accept federal funds for certain kinds of computer access to install filters by July 1. The U.S. Supreme Court decision was not a complete loss, but CIPA poses new headaches for both ALA and local librarians.

While Ashcroft and his cronies criticized library opposition to the Patriot Act, new ALA president Carla Hayden forcefully responded. More such battles will be fought. Watch for conservatives to continue to criticize ALA's non-stance on the controversial issue of Cuba's "independent librarians."

Budget pressures will continue in 2004, and libraries that suffered from the collapse of divine, Inc.'s subscription business may see gaps in some collections. The push for better library salaries slowed somewhat last year, but it is now institutionalized in committees in every state and regional association. The ALA-APA (Allied Professional Association), which barely hit the radar screens in 2003, should gain momentum as a new director debuts, likely at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in January.

Despite the growth of Google and some highly public disdain for libraries—e.g., Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's unsuccessful attempt to move the state library's circulating collection to private Nova Southeastern University—libraries remain vital as places both physical and virtual. Generally public library use in America has never been greater. This success comes with the need to continue to innovate in the face of change and to maintain and expand library support.

A new job for library staff this year will be "filter unblocker." If the Supreme Court had asked, librarians would have told the justices that unblocking a filter can take considerable staff time and effort. But the court, in its June decision, reinterpreted CIPA—allowing adults to request disabling a filter for "bona fide research or other lawful purposes." ALA and state library associations want libraries to weigh the true cost of unblocking filtering against the value of the Library Services and Technology Act and E-rate funds received. Some libraries have already decided it is cheaper not to filter; others say local politics insists they must.

A new ALA coordinating committee for CIPA response will help the association avoid the disarray it experienced right after the decision last August. ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom and Office for Information Technology Policy scheduled a meeting to negotiate with filter vendors. That meeting was canceled because of protests from members, though an upcoming issue of Library Technology Reports will analyze filter features.

Library administrators not already conscious of the need to manage staff and public attitudes toward the Internet can keep the Minneapolis Public Library (MPL) example in mind. MPL, site of staff protests in 2000 against rampant porn surfing, last year paid $435,000—the limits of its insurance—to settle a hostile work environment lawsuit filed by 12 employees. While not admitting wrongdoing, the library expressed regret that it had not responded earlier to staff concerns and agreed to tighten rules on in-library Internet use.

The much-discussed librarian "action figure" (based on LJ contributor Nancy Pearl, director of the Washington Center for the Book, Seattle PL) features a "shushing" gesture, but librarians will continue to speak up. Library associations' and boards' opposition to the Patriot Act has led city councils and other bodies to join them.

Indeed, library concern about the law inspired Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), LJ 's 2003 Politician of the Year, to introduce a bill that requires those who wish to search library and bookstore records to adhere to pre–Patriot Act standards. His bill and others aimed at scaling back Section 215 of the Patriot Act will continue to trigger heated debate.

Ashcroft, in a national tour defending the Patriot Act, ridiculed library "hysteria," saying that FBI agents had better things to do than track reading habits. ALA's Hayden countered that Ashcroft could allay concern by actually reporting how often the FBI had used its new powers under Section 215. The answer was zero, and library advocates will use that to argue that the section isn't necessary. But the FBI has been in libraries for antiterrorism investigation, using other laws. ALA's planned study of such visits should take the debate to a new level.

Expect new attention on the privacy implications of library technology and procedures, as more libraries adopt RFID (radio frequency identification) circulation technology and apply new privacy policies.

After three years of economic downturn it seemed that no library great or small was immune to harsh budget cuts, which forced reduced purchasing, staff layoffs (including 22 positions in Anchorage), freezes on open positions, and reduction in hours. While many branches were threatened with closure, last-minute reprieves saved most. To cope, more libraries, such as MPL, followed Seattle PL's lead, closing entirely for a week or two instead of trimming services.

Since 2004 is an election year, both the White House and Congress will introduce new plans to buttress incipient economic growth. Bush and his rivals will have to give the public better, more visible government services. Schools and libraries should be near the top of that election food chain, right under healthcare. Nevertheless, the situation in Iraq will claim so much of the nation's resources that libraries and other public goods face even stiffer competition for funds.

First Lady Laura Bush, a former librarian, has used her influence to obtain federal grant money for school libraries and librarian recruiting. The October 3 White House nominations of the first crop of new members of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science could be another signal of better library times ahead.

Many libraries, not content to wait and see how things play out, are on the move to form special taxation districts to fund operating budgets. Expect the trend to create such districts and find grant money and other forms of funding to mushroom in the years ahead.

Watch for postscripts to the most shocking story of 2003—the collapse of divine, Inc.'s RoweCom/ Faxon subscription service. Luckily, a bailout plan from publishers and subscription agent EBSCO meant libraries will feel little lingering pain from the collapse. That is a minor miracle in view of the enormity of the scandal that has been called "the Enron of the library world." When divine, Inc.'s subscription business collapsed in late 2002, an estimated $65–$70 million in library payments was never received by publishers. It was a devastating blow, especially during a slumping economy. The EBSCO plan saw 70 percent of publishers fulfill orders in exchange for claims against divine. This eliminates much of the uncertainty for libraries. However, with 30 percent of publishers unable to participate in the bailout, some libraries will have to contend with gaps in their collections, and in such tight budget times, some of the lost subscriptions may not be renewed at all. For publishers and for divine's former leaders, uncertainty remains. How much will claims against bankrupt divine yield for publishers, if anything, and how will they absorb the loss? What will ongoing civil suits reveal about divine's business dealings? Libraries largely dodged the divine bullet. In 2004, however, we'll see where that bullet ultimately struck.

In the coming year a variety of exciting new initiatives will become more permanent, shed their "alternative" tags, and labor to be viable in the mainstream. Librarians played a key role in fomenting the change in scholarly communication, and they will play key roles in establishing the viability of new models. With both faculty and administrators now on board, look for open access journals such as those of BioMed Central and the Public Library of Science to surge. Libraries will be chief in the development of digital repositories, such as Ohio State's Knowledge Bank and MIT's DSpace. Expect more collaboration to address common problems between university presses and academic libraries and their respective associations.

With "big deal" packages offered by STM leader Elsevier already under scrutiny (Cornell University library has refused to renew, see News, p. 15), commercial publishers will see how viable these deals are and whether new, more flexible models will replace them in 2004. How will British equity firms Cinven and Candover's newly constructed STM giant compete? After years of pushing, revolutionary change has come to scholarly communication. In 2004, the effect of that change on libraries will begin to set in.

While the standalone e-book—especially for leisure reading—has found little acceptance, serious nonfiction content, when bundled together into electronic collections, is growing in popularity. Librarians are interested in products from vendors like Knovel, Books24x7, and ebrary, which go beyond providing the simple print counterpart. These products can work with the rest of the reference collections. E-book collections are sure to grow as publishers dip into their backlists.

Amazon's new "Search Inside the Book" feature can unlock content that is sleeping on library shelves. More important, it is a model for users who will expect the same functionality through the library OPAC. Now Google is negotiating with publishers to expose book content through the search engine.

Google is also indexing scholarly publications from IEEE, and it is likely that other publishers will follow suit. One major periodicals vendor is rumored to be in negotiation with Google. Expect the indexing to proprietary content to pop up increasingly on the web, typically with a "buy this article" option. Librarians will need to follow what content is and isn't being indexed by Google and make sure that their users don't buy content the library already owns.

Virtual reference, the "it technology" of just a few years ago, is maturing. Enough so that R. David Lankes of Syracuse University's Information Institute argues that it's the "first mature digital library service." Chat reference is showing all the signs of an established library service: widespread implementation and expanding public use, especially through consortia; improved measurement and evaluation; and integration into library school curricula. Librarians experienced with chat view it as just another tool to deliver reference service. Look for new measurement tools that will provide improved data about both usage and effectiveness of chat reference.

Libraries are migrating to their second software or considering it, as a result of increased sophistication among librarians who demand better services for their communities. As more users get speedier connections, existing functions will improve and new ones will be developed. Content will increasingly be evaluated for its operability and usefulness in supporting virtual reference. Partnerships among different types of libraries—e.g., public libraries working with medical or legal librarians—should become more common, adding depth to the virtual world. When Tutor.com—now owners of LSSI's Reference Division—releases a new version of the Virtual Reference Toolkit, expect integration with Tutor's Live Homework Help and an expanded suite of online services.

OpenURL is "mission critical—something [academic library] users can't live without," says OhioLINK's Thomas Dowling. A standard for transporting metadata, OpenURL can bring together disparate resources into one collection, allowing researchers to, usually, move seamlessly among electronic content. With the positive buzz, and the recent release by NISO of the OpenURL 1.0 standard, implementation should expand. Content providers will be under increasing pressure to support the OpenURL framework and to provide article-level linking; this will be another criteria for judging content.

Librarians are already looking at other ramifications. For a link resolver to work, libraries need accurate data about their serials collection. This serials knowledge base, once created, could have other uses, too, e.g., as the basis for an electronic resources management tool or in interlibrary loan.

Metasearch software, which provides users with a simple keyword search interface to search disparate full-text and bibliographic databases simultaneously, faces more challenges. Librarians report that setting it up is labor-intensive, and they are concerned about its effectiveness. Content providers, now the target of many more searches, worry about the effect on their bottom line—supporting all that screen scraping could get expensive. Librarians will push for a preliminary metasearching standard. Until then, only the more adventuresome will implement it.

RFID tags are finally coming to public libraries. The tags enable self-checkout, significantly reduce materials handling, and speed the return of material to library shelves. Designs for future libraries are integrating this technology. With the U.S. Army and Wal-Mart both using the tags by 2005, costs will decrease, functionality will increase, and implementation in libraries will grow.

In August, CNNMoney online included corporate librarians on its list of "hot" careers. Mid- to upper-level corporate jobs, especially in pharmaceutical, law, and medical organizations, reportedly are on the increase over 2002, although some professionals remain skeptical.

Organizations specialized librarians join are on a stronger financial footing. Membership declines of the past two years are under control, but more aggressive commitment to their needs will be required to hold members.

In a major disappointment to their leaders, members of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) voted down a name change in 2003, after nearly three years of discussion and planning. A watered-down version of the "branding" initiative, originally conceived to bolster the change, will go ahead. SLA's new executive director, Janice Lachance, says the top items on her 2004 agenda are advocacy, visibility in public policy debates, partnerships, and emphasis on international programs and services.

In 2004 expect successful specialized librarians to change their job titles and refocus their responsibilities. Increasingly, physical library spaces will disappear or decrease in size. Professional staff will have opportunities to work virtually with priority clientele around the world. A new emphasis on return on investment analysis and tools to identify ways to provide quality services and information will also emerge.

More new librarians will come from cyberspace this year, as library and information science (LIS) programs graduate the growing number of enrolled students who earn degrees via digital means from home. A glut of Ph.D.'s in the humanities prompted academic library fellowships, as academic library directors see potential staffers among them. The controversy is whether or not these new library workers will want to study for the MLIS, or simply be granted permanent library jobs with their Ph.D.'s. Next year the Council on Library and Information Resources will launch a new Postdoctoral Fellowship for Humanists in Libraries, featuring a one-month orientation and 11 months of specialized training. A variety of fast-track LIS programs are being considered as well.

Many LIS educators think it is a mistake to bypass traditional training, saying the values and acculturation afforded by the traditional LIS programs are needed for anyone in library practice. Then again, the University of Illinois GSLIS—one of the nation's top-ranked schools—named as its new dean John Unsworth, a Ph.D. in English with much experience in information technology but no library degree.

The emerging "information" schools, the group that has dropped "library" from their names and program emphases, now number more than a dozen. They will vie with more traditional LIS programs for enrollment and status. New mergers, like the one proposed at Indiana University putting LIS and computer science into a fledgling School of Informatics, will be proposed.

Protests against Clark Atlanta University's plan to close its 62-year-old SLIS, one of two at historically black institutions, will continue and grow, rallying the profession. It remains to be seen if university administrators will recognize the importance of SLIS.