Group: Social Learning for Staff Development  
RSS
Threads [ Previous | Next ]
RE: Social media in the public record
Showing 6 results.
Social media in the public record
5:37 PM EDT 7/28/09
When we discussed objections to using social tools in libraries, the subject of requirements for open access to public records came up. The problem is that if staff are using social network interactions in the library for learning and collaborating, will this be part of the public record? what is the comfort level with that?

A related conversation came up on publib today. A librarian posted this question: " My library has been running blogs, twitter, and facebook for the last several months, but we haven’t publicized it because we are finalizing our social media policy. Our city attorney is very concerned about how social media fits into public records requests."

Robert Balliot linked to this collection of links on the Electronic Freedom Foundation. Judy Turner posted this link to the Oregon State Archives records retention schedules for possible guidelines.

Turner also states that challenges to the Open Public Records statutes tend to lag behind the technology, so current challenges are dealing with email and not yet addressing newer services like Twitter and facebook.

Is this a problem at your library? Do you have a policy or are you in the process of formulating one?
RE: Social media in the public record
11:53 AM EDT 8/3/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
This is a major reason why we haven't developed a proper (2-way) blog ... it seemed to impose a need to save (virtually forever) what a responder might say. Our one-way blog doesn't do this, though I'm not at all sure what might be done with e-mails.

With Facebook, at least, we're using a commercial product and need to abide by the company's rules. We can't really be expected to tell them what to keep.
RE: Social media in the public record
2:40 PM EDT 8/3/09 as a reply to Bob Watson.
I will readily admit to my ignorance on this topic. I'm confused about what is and is not defined as "public record."

I found this definition from the UWisconsin-Madison Libraries Records Management page:
all books, papers, maps, photographs, films, recordings, or other documentary materials, regardless of their physical form or characteristics, produced or received by any state agency or its officers or employees in connection with the transaction of public business ...


If social media are used internally for staff training, isn't that out of the public record? Whereas a public-facing blog, even if it's one-way, would be on the public record. I think I must be missing something.
RE: Social media in the public record
3:12 PM EDT 8/3/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
The problem here, I think, is that it's uncharted territory.

I think library-produced material is much like a newsletter ... there's no sense of a "public record" there since there's nothing transactional (no official action taken). But if there's a discussion on a blog which leads, say, to a new policy then the discussion itself had bearing on whatever policy decision was made.

The anal, of course, would save everything. And now, of course, we actually could ... though access might well be a problem when software changes.

That reminds me of the ploy some companies have used when facing a court order for information disclosure. This is: you find *everything* that is even proximately apropos, fill up a semi or two with the paperwork, and let the other side's attorneys try to look for what they need ... without help or guidance, of course. (BTW ... been there, done that.)

The temptation would be to save in a format no one can easily search.
RE: Social media in the public record
3:03 PM EDT 8/4/09 as a reply to Bob Watson.
Something tells me that libraries in general are not comfortable sailing into uncharted waters.

The great irony of all this is the unholy persistence of data of all sorts on the Internet. Even if staff social network posts are out of the public record, is there an even greater concern for the security of their personal data on Facebook or Google or Yahoo.

Yahoo will not be actually destroying personal data ---just making it "anonymized"! Which means, the information will still exist as bits and bytes but not attached to an individual. I wonder if that approach would hold up in court for the public record requirement?
RE: Social media in the public record
3:53 PM EDT 8/4/09 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
Betha Gutsche:
Something tells me that libraries in general are not comfortable sailing into uncharted waters.


Agreed. The possibility of being sued has a tendency to focus one's attention elsewhere. ;-)