Privacy and the Digital Library in an Era of Big Data

This bachelor thesis aims at investigating how librarians at university libraries experience privacy and user data when using the digital library, and to relate their views to an era of Big Data. Protecting the library user’s privacy is part of the librarian profession and established in the ethical codes published by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Privacy issues have also been of interest for the library- and information science over the years, some studies which have investigated the expectations of privacy by library users. The results show that library users expect the library to protect their privacy and feel safe about the library as an institution for doing so. Earlier studies, as well as my result, shows that this is a major challenge in an era of Big Data, when the digital library depends on third party suppliers and the exchange of data between libraries, suppliers, and library users. The thesis takes on a qualitative approach. Interviews were held with five librarians using the semi-structured interview as a method. To analyse the result, the thoughts presented by Mai (2019) about personal information in an era of Big Data, and the models of privacy and information presented by Mai (2016, 2019) and Agre (1994), have been used. The result shows that the librarians view on privacy and user data correspond with the perspectives reflected in the Panopticon Model and the Capture Model. That is a traditional view on privacy and information, seeing personal information as a certain type of information that can be controlled. According to this view, violation of a user’s privacy is about not being able to fully protect that personal information. According to Mai (2016, 2019) this is not a satisfactory view on privacy in an era of Big Data. He therefore suggests the Datafication Model. Privacy should, according to Mai (ibid.), be less about the information and more about the situations where the information is being used. This view on privacy and information couldn’t be seen in the result of the study.