Should Libraries be recommending LibraryElf?
I've submitted this to this week's episode of Uncontrolled Vocabulary so I don't want to talk about it much here other than to solicit your opinions.
I use LibraryElf. I love Library Elf. It is what makes sure that I return my books on time and I pick up my holds quickly. (Especially when I was back in Denver and regularly checked items out of five or six different area libraries.) I've told many a librarian about it and think I've gotten a few to sign up as a result. However, I've always warned that using this service means giving the folks at LibraryElf full access to your account. I have decided to accept the privacy implications in exchange for the convenience. Others need to make that decision for themselves.
This morning I went to the Web site of the Seward Public Memorial Library in Seward, NE and saw this smack dab in the middle of their home page:
They're recommending LibraryElf. Clicking on the link gets you to a page which gives a basic explanation of how the service works and encourages people to sign up.
Here are my questions:
- Should the library explain the potential privacy implications of using such a service? And if so, to what extent?
- Should the library be specifically promoting a third-party service such as this with which they have not official relationship?
- If a patron's privacy is breached due to the use of this service is the library liable?
Get your comments in soon and I'll try to include them in the UnVocab discussion.




2 Comments:
There is nothing wrong with promoting a service that compliments library services. You just have to be clear that it is third party and not run by the library. I place Flickr, Library Elf, and Twitter on my library's homepage at cglibrary.org. I don't promote it on the page, but in emails, library news, and the local paper. There I do state that it is a third party app.
I know of at least 2 MCLS libraries that have the link to ELF on their front page (Arcadia and Burbank). Neither one really has much to say about the service other than a brief explanation of what it does.
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