About Privacy (continued)

Library personnel have cited the right of "privacy" several times in regards to the mention of pornography use in our public library. They seem to think that there is an implied and completely understood right to privacy for patrons choosing to view these images in public - privacy expected to be honored by both library staff and fellow patrons.

My previous entry addresses the issue that public acts are by no means private. This entry is meant to deal with the underlying assumption that all patrons have a given right to absolute privacy in the public library.

If I understand this correctly, I believe that the 'privacy' so often referenced by library personnel is a very different type of privacy than the real privacy patrons can expect to have. Because I have searched the Chicago Public Library website and not found explicit direction that everyone will provide absolutely privacy for all patrons in the library, I must assume that the privacy so often mentioned is actually a distorted version of the Library Records Confidentiality Act.

As taken from the Chicago Public Library website:

Confidentiality of Patron and Circulation Records
Pursuant to (75 ILCS 70), the Library Records Confidentiality Act, patron and circulation records of the Chicago Public Library are strictly confidential and not subject to disclosure to the public or to any law enforcement officers except by court warrant. Library employees and any agents of the library are bound to observe this confidentiality.

This policy suggests that circulation records and registration information on specific patrons are to be kept confidential, within specific guidelines (for example, a search warrant would be a legal way to obtain this information). This does not suggest nor does it imply that a patron's public behaviors are also confidential. Being openly exposed to second-hand hard-core pornography is a very different thing than requesting information on what books another patron has checked out.

Again, this is not something that I'm trying to see. I am not purposefully invading anyone's privacy. Rather, all nearby library patrons, including children, are regularly exposed to graphic imagery without consent or even warning.